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From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: rec.games.int-fiction FAQ part 1 - Introduction
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
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Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 17:36:23 GMT
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(this has not yet been added to the *.answers archives yet)
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded
front door. There is a small mailbox here.
>OPEN MAILBOX. READ LEAFLET
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.
(Taken)
"Welcome to rec.games.int-fiction!
This is part 1 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
This file is in 3 parts. It is posted periodically to the following
newsgroups:
rec.games.int-fiction
rec.arts.int-fiction
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure
comp.sys.mac.games.adventure
comp.sys.amiga.games
comp.sys.acorn.games
comp.os.os2.games
rec.answers
comp.answers
news.answers
The most recent version can be obtained at
Throughout this file, there will be URL references to relevant files
if they are available on the ftp.gmd.de site. See section 1.5 for
more information.
Contents of this file, part 1:
1.0 rec.games.int-fiction
1.1 The purpose of this group and some history of IF
1.2 Other USENET newsgroups discussing interactive fiction
1.3 Netiquette rules; asking for and posting hints; "bug reports"
1.4 Are there any 'zines related to Interactive Fiction?
1.5 The ftp.gmd.de IF archive and other Net resources
1.6 Games, walkthroughs, hints and source available for FTP
1.7 Disclaimer and trademark/copyright notice
1.8 XYZZY?
Part 2 covers Infocom.
Part 3 covers other adventure or IF-producing companies.
The current maintainer is Stephen van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca.
Special thanks to Paul Smith, Magnus Olsson, Jacob Butcher, Paul
David Doherty, Volker Blasius, Keith Lim, Luis Torres, Jacob
Weinstein, Mark Howell, Adrian Booth, Eric Shepherd, Sascha Wildner,
Jim Butterfield, Mark Stacey, Stu Galley, Dorinda Hartmann, Tomas
Schafer, Hans Persson, Gareth Rees, Robert Pelak and many others for
ideas, suggestions and contributions. Scott Forbes created and
maintained the original FAQ.
No newsgroup should be without one!"
>PRAY
Altar
This is the south end of a large temple. In front of you is what appears
to be an altar. In one corner is a small hole in the floor which leads
into darkness. You probably could not get back up it. On the two ends of
the altar are burning candles. On the altar is a large black book, open to
page 570.
>READ BOOK
Commandment #12593
"The purpose of this group and some history of IF" (1.1)
Here in the newsgroup rec.games.int-fiction we discuss games of the
interactive fiction genre, ranging from classic games by companies
such as Infocom and Scott Adams to 'modern' and non-text IF games.
Simply put, the IF genre includes any game that tells a story as part
of the game, usually with the player as the protagonist. The actions
of the player affect the progress of the story, which often centers
around solving puzzles or finding treasure, and leads to an endgame in
which the player 'wins' and completes the adventure.
One of the earliest games that could at least be termed interactive is
Hunt The Wumpus, from the early 1970s. In this game, you have three
arrows, and are trapped in a maze that is a dodecahedron, with the nodes
being rooms and the edges being the room connections. In any room, you
are given hints as to phenomena that are going on in adjacent rooms (you
can't tell from which one though) - breezes from bottomless pits, grunts
from the (very hungry) wumpus, and so on. The wumpus can move, and
the bottomless pits are frequently rearranged by earthquakes. Your
goal is to hit the wumpus with one of your arrows by firing it down a
passageway into an adjacent room.
Interactive *fiction* traces its electronic roots to a 1977 program
named ADVENT, better known as the Colossal Cave Adventure. It was
this program, written by Willie Crowther and Don Woods, that
established many of the features now common to the genre, including
noun/verb parsing (e.g. "TAKE BOOK"), mazes ("You are in a maze of
twisty little passages, all alike") and the basis of most later IF in
fantasy/adventure settings. Soon after this the game Dungeon, or
Zork, was written by MIT grad students; these students were the
nucleus of a 1980 startup company called Infocom, which produced a
version of Zork for the TRS-80 Model I and other machines. This led to
widespread popularity of interactive fiction games, and was later
referred to as the Golden Age of the genre; for several years,
Infocom's products were the top-selling games on the market.
Later events, however, led to the decline of the IF genre. As the
educational level of the average computer user decreased and the
features and capabilities of the average computer increased, the trend
in computer games went to 'arcade' games instead of text.
By 1989 Infocom had been absorbed by another company and destroyed,
leaving a legacy of high-quality, well-written interactive fiction and
a large audience with few sources for good new material. This
newsgroup discusses 'classic' interactive fiction games, new games
keeping the genre alive, and non-text (even non-computer) IF.
>N
Temple
This is the north end of a large temple. On the east wall is an ancient
inscription, probably a prayer in a long-forgotten language. Below the
prayer is a staircase leading down. The west wall is solid granite. The
exit to the north end of the room is through huge marble pillars. There is
a brass bell here.
>READ INSCRIPTION
"Other USENET newsgroups discussing interactive fiction" (1.2)
Many people make the mistake of assuming that rec.arts.int-fiction
and rec.games.int-fiction are the same group. Nobody in rgif can answer
programming questions, and few people in raif want to see hint requests.
Be very careful when crossposting to both newsgroups: do both audiences
care? Even if you do crosspost, direct followups to the appropriate
forum with a Followup-To: header line.
_rec.arts.int-fiction_ is a newsgroup for *authors* of interactive
fiction, and discusses adventure development systems such as Inform
and TADS, features of a 'good' IF game and how to implement them,
techniques, hazards, tradeoffs, etc. If you're thinking about writing
a game (as opposed to playing one), rec.arts.int-fiction is your
group. is the
FAQ.
_comp.sys.amiga.games_ discusses all types of computer games for the
Commodore Amiga computer, including IF games for that machine.
_comp.sys.mac.games_ has a similar charter, discussing games for the
Apple Macintosh line of computers.
_comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure_ discusses a subset of the topics
covered in rec.games.int-ficton: Those interactive fiction games
available for the IBM PC. If you're looking for IBM-specific info
about a game, or for info about a game available only on IBM PCs, you
may find help in c.s.i.p.g.adventure.
The _rec.games.mud_ hierarchy discusses MUD (multi-user dungeon) games.
The _rec.games.frp_ groups discuss fantasy role-playing games (not
necessarily computer-based) such as Dungeons & Dragons.
_rec.games.roguelike.misc_ is for general discussion of games in the
"Rogue" family (games that display an ASCII representation of a
dungeon and its contents).
_rec.games.roguelike.announce_ is a moderated newsgroup for announcements
about Rogue-like games. The other groups in the roguelike hierarchy each
discuss a specific game in the "Rogue" genre.
>BLORPLE WEST WALL
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.
Nondescript Room
This is a drab, nondescript room. The only exit leads south.
>S
Enchanters' Retreat
Belboz is meditating here.
>BELBOZ, HELLO
"Hello." Belboz doesn't seem pleased to see you.
>ASK BELBOZ FOR A HINT
Belboz looks at you suspiciously. "Only the rawest apprentice would ask
for a hint (or post one) without observing proper netiquette."
"Netiquette, hints, and bug reports" (1.3)
Before asking for a hint, consider that many people before you have
asked for hints. At ftp.gmd.de there are numerous hint files and
walkthroughs available. See question 1.6 for more information.
1. Above all else, don't spoil the puzzle or game for other people who
are reading the newsgroup but didn't ask for a hint. One common way of
doing this, if you're asking for a hint, is to put the number of points
you have earned so far, or the area of the game you're dealing with,
in the subject line, so that people who are not yet that far into the
game can skip your post.
When asking for or giving hints, try to put spoiler warnings in the
subject line and text, and if possible, a form feed character in the main
text before the spoiling content.
Good example:
>Subject: Re: ZORK I at 10 points (SPOILERS)
>
>J. Random writes:
>>How do I get into the white house?
>
>SPOILERS
>Have you tried running for President?
*** A special note on the "form feed" character: The ASCII
character 12, if inserted as the _first_character_of_a_line_ in the
text of an article, causes most newsreaders to pause and require
the user to hit a key before continuing. This feature is useful
when protecting part of a message from people who don't want to see
it, as it gives them the option of hitting "n" instead and skipping
the SPOILER section.
Some newsreaders display this character as a caret followed by the
letter L, thus: ^L . This is *not* the same as typing the two
characters ^ and L. Also, it is very important that the "form
feed" character be kept as the first character on the line. If you
reply to a message and put a ">" in front of the form feed, it
won't work, the message will be spoiled and scores of angry netters
will tear you limb from limb (okay, maybe not that drastic, but
it's bad manners).
Most machines can generate a form feed character if you type a
CTRL-L or (in "vi") CTRL-V CTRL-L. If you can't generate a form
feed character, either use 24 blank lines or save this message and
delete everything but the form feed below.
The last character on this line is an ASCII form feed:
2. If you're asking for a hint, please try to ask in a way that
doesn't spoil the puzzle, or spoil other puzzles in the game.
Describe whatever details are relevant, but don't post the answer to
every other puzzle you've solved up to this point.
Good example:
>I've figured out what the gold machine is for, but I keep
>getting killed whenever I try to use it.
Bad example:
>I used the gold machine to send a message to Orkan, but the
>Warlock noticed my presence and turned me into bat guano.
If you can't ask the question without revealing part of the
puzzle, protect the question with spoiler warnings as above.
3. When giving a hint, please try to give just enough info to send
the adventurer on her way. Please don't post the exact sequence
of moves required to win the game from this point, or solve the next
two puzzles in order to get the ball rolling.
Good example:
>Have you explored the area outside the house?
Bad example:
>There's a window on the east side of the house that you can
>squeeze through in order to get in. Don't bother with the
>front door; there's no way to open it. Don't eat the food,
>either: You'll need it later to feed the microscopic dog.
Other common messages seen on rec.games.int-fiction involve bugs that
the poster has found (or thinks they have found) in a particular game.
A bug is broadly defined as behaviour that was not intended by the
author. The most common error is one where characters or objects
behave in strange ways; less common is the existence of ways of getting
around a puzzle that the author did not intend. Lists of known errors
in Infocom games are published in some editions of XYZZYnews and on
the Infocom home page. See below for the locations of these resources.
If you know that you've found a bug or contradiction in a game,
please refrain from posting about it to the entire newsgroup. There is
no point in embarrassing the author. Almost every author provides an
electronic-mail address, which you should use to inform her about the
bugs. Many authors don't see everything on rgif, or don't read it at
all.
On the other hand, if you're not sure whether what you've encountered
is a bug or not, it makes sense to post about it; don't forget to
put spoiler warnings in where appropriate.
Belboz looks at you expectantly.
>ASK BELBOZ ABOUT THE DUSTY SCROLL
Belboz looks at you suspiciously. "Curious little enchanter, aren't you?"
"Magazines about interactive fiction" (1.4)
There are two magazines archived at ftp.gmd.de which are still
producing new issues. They are:
SPAG ("Society for the Preservation of Interactive Fiction") and
XYZZYnews (Xyzzy is a magic word from Adventure)
They are both excellent. Issues are made available in either PDF
(requiring an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format reader) or in
plain text. The magazines are free. XYZZYnews encourages subscription
by giving giving subscribers the latest issue before everyone else.
SPAG focuses almost entirely on game reviews.
Someone went through the first 33 issues of a PC-only magazine
called SynTax and made the IF-relevant files and articles
available in a file at ftp.gmd.de. It's a promotion for the
subscription-only magazine.
Everything is available at
Belboz looks at you expectantly.
>FROTZ BELBOZ
Belboz stops you with a word of power.
"Ah! Now I have you, charlatan! Fool me twice? Never!" He rises to his
feet, makes a threatening gesture, and you find yourself transported
to....
Maze
This is part of a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
>PLUGH
A hollow voice says:
"The ftp.gmd.de IF archive and other Net resources" (1.5)
The interactive fiction archive site at ftp.gmd.de (129.26.8.90) is by
far the largest collection of interactive fiction games, development
systems, "walkthrough" solution files and related IF materials
available. It is generously maintained by Volker Blasius. Uploads of
new material are encouraged; please send e-mail to blasius@gmd.de when
uploading. It is at .
Other mirror sites:
in the USA:
in Finnland:
in Australia:
The other area where considerable information is available is through
WWW. The known offerings:
+
A browsable hypertext index of the ftp.gmd.de archive. You can look
through the file listings, click on a file name to download it, and view
game reviews (contributions of reviews encouraged). Some information for
Inform developers is also available.
+
The unofficial "Infocom" home page, compiling a lot of widely
distributed Infocom-specific information into a very usable form.
There's articles on Infocom published in the computer industry and
in Infocom's own newsletter, as well as invisiclues, maps and known bugs
on every Infocom text adventure.
+
John's Interactive Fiction home page offers a hypertext version
of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica, the rec.arts.int-fiction FAQ,
and some commentary on parsers.
+
Maintained by Paul Gilbert, this provides a convenient, annotated
"reference" to net-accessible IF materials.
+
A huge pile of game-reviews written by Carl Muckenhoupt with links
to the files they're talking about, specific to ftp.gmd.de, and
primarily the games/pc directory.
>S.W.SW.W.W.
Flathead Ocean
Passing alongside the shore now is an old boat, reminiscent of an ancient
Viking ship. Standing on the prow of the ship is an old and crusty sailor,
peering out over the misty ocean.
>HELLO SAILOR
The seaman looks up and maneuvers the boat toward shore. He cries out:
"Games, walkthroughs, hints, source and other FAQs" (1.6)
Thanks to Magnus Olsson for much of the info in this section.
Games and source:
+ ftp.gmd.de in games/, programming/, infocom/compilers/inform/,
and their subdirectories.
+ Source code for some text adventures (including various versions of
Colossal Cave/ADVENT, Dungeon/Zork and World) have been posted to
comp.sources.games and comp.sources.misc. They're available from FTP
sites archiving these groups, such as ftp.uu.net.
+ Some Macintosh IF games are available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu,
including Colossal Cave and Dungeon. [Unnkulian may be there too.]
+ Amiga IF games are available from any Aminet mirror site, such as
ftp.wustl.edu or ftp.netnet.net, in the pub/aminet/games/role directory.
Walkthroughs and hints. A walkthrough is a start-to-finish "most direct
route" way to finish the game, which guarantees that you will miss out on
lots of the pleasant details that make IF worthwhile. Hint files are
usually in the question-and-answer form. Infocom's variation on this was
the Invisiclue booklet: answers were printed in invisible ink and you used
a special marker to make them visible when you needed a hint. The
electronic version of this (receiving progressively more hints on the
screen) is implemented in many games. Type HINT or HELP to see if they're
available. There is also a shareware-ish program called UHS ("Universal
Hint System") which has many hint files compiled for it; beware of the
author's registration scheme and the lack of attention given to porting
the UHS reader to non-PC platforms.
+ ftp.gmd.de in the solutions/ and infocom/hints/ directories.
+ Walkthroughs for many popular IF games are available from ftp.uu.net,
in the directory /pub/games/solutions/.
+ The Invisiclues for all v3 to v5 Infocom games are available through
the Infocom home page at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pete/Infocom.
Relevant mini-FAQs and information compilations:
+
A history of the interactive fiction genre. (Hans Persson)
+
A list of computer games related to J.R.R.Tolkien's works.
(Fredrik Ekman)
+
Games, authors, history, statistics, interpreters, and tools for
Infocom games. (Paul David Doherty)
+
Infocom game information table. (Paul D. Smith)
+
FAQ by Gareth Rees on what to do if you have an Infocom-format
game file (.z3, .z5, .z7, .z8 or .dat) but don't know how to "make it
go". See also section 2.8 of this FAQ.
+
FAQ by stevgrif@moc.govt.nz (Stephen Griffiths) oriented
towards owners of MS-DOS machines who wish to play any of the games
at ftp.gmd.de. Covers all different games systems there are. Very
helpful if you're stuck.
+
The archive of Level 9 games. See question 3.3 for more information.
Please accept this gift. You may find it useful!" He throws something
which falls near you in the sand, then sails off toward the west, singing a
lively, but somewhat uncouth, sailor song. The boat sails silently through
the mist and out of sight.
A seedy-looking individual with a large bag just wandered through the room.
On the way through, he quietly abstracted some valuables from your
possession, mumbling something about:
"Disclaimer and copyright/trademark notice" (1.7)
This FAQ Copyright 1995 by Stephen Van Egmond. Reproduction of this
document and printing it for personal use is OK. Putting it into an
off-Net compilation without permission is not OK. Ask first.
All trademarks remain the property of their respective companies.
>XYZZY (1.8)
Nothing happens. In the distance you hear a voice:
People frequently ask about the origins of XYZZY. From the Jargon file
3.2.0:
:xyzzy: /X-Y-Z-Z-Y/, /X-Y-ziz'ee/, /ziz'ee/, or /ik-ziz'ee/
adj. [from the ADVENT game] The canonical `magic
word'. This comes from ADVENT, in which the idea is to
explore an underground cave with many rooms and to collect the
treasures you find there. If you type `xyzzy' at the appropriate
time, you can move instantly between two otherwise distant points.
If, therefore, you encounter some bit of magic, you might
remark on this quite succinctly by saying simply "Xyzzy!"
"Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has
protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system will
let you do it anyway." "Xyzzy!"
Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op
command on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it
would typically respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT
did if the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player
had performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent
32-bit versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much
happens".
The popular `minesweeper' game under Microsoft Windows has a
cheat mode triggered by the command `xyzzy'
that turns the top-left pixel of the screen different colors
depending on whether or not the cursor is over a bomb.
>SE
Maze
This is part of a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Someone carrying a large bag is casually leaning against one of the walls
here. He does not speak, but it is clear from his aspect that the bag will
be taken only over his dead body.
>KILL THIEF WITH SWORD
A good slash, but it misses the thief by a mile. The thief comes in from
the side, feints, and inserts the blade into your ribs.
It appears that that last blow was too much for you.
I'm afraid you are dead.
**** You have died ****
Press any key to continue
16031 100664 52 52 60063 6177020625 7626 0 ustar news news Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,rec.arts.int-fiction,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure,comp.sys.mac.games.adventure,comp.sys.amiga.games,comp.sys.acorn.games,comp.os.os2.games
Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!blackbush.xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!torn!watserv3.uwaterloo.ca!undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!svanegmo
From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: rec.games.int-fiction FAQ part 1 - Introduction
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
Message-ID:
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 17:38:27 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host: cantor.math.uwaterloo.ca
Organization: University of Waterloo
Followup-To: rec.games.int-fiction
Lines: 529
Xref: nntp.gmd.de rec.games.int-fiction:16031 rec.arts.int-fiction:14426 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure:131178 comp.sys.mac.games.adventure:16824 comp.sys.amiga.games:94615 comp.sys.acorn.games:10240 comp.os.os2.games:34862
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded
front door. There is a small mailbox here.
>OPEN MAILBOX. READ LEAFLET
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.
(Taken)
"Welcome to rec.games.int-fiction!
This is part 1 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
This file is in 3 parts. It is posted periodically to the following
newsgroups:
rec.games.int-fiction
rec.arts.int-fiction
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure
comp.sys.mac.games.adventure
comp.sys.amiga.games
comp.sys.acorn.games
comp.os.os2.games
rec.answers
comp.answers
news.answers
The most recent version can be obtained at
Throughout this file, there will be URL references to relevant files
if they are available on the ftp.gmd.de site. See section 1.5 for
more information.
Contents of this file, part 1:
1.0 rec.games.int-fiction
1.1 The purpose of this group and some history of IF
1.2 Other USENET newsgroups discussing interactive fiction
1.3 Netiquette rules; asking for and posting hints; "bug reports"
1.4 Are there any 'zines related to Interactive Fiction?
1.5 The ftp.gmd.de IF archive and other Net resources
1.6 Games, walkthroughs, hints and source available for FTP
1.7 Disclaimer and trademark/copyright notice
1.8 XYZZY?
Part 2 covers Infocom.
Part 3 covers other adventure or IF-producing companies.
The current maintainer is Stephen van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca.
Special thanks to Paul Smith, Magnus Olsson, Jacob Butcher, Paul
David Doherty, Volker Blasius, Keith Lim, Luis Torres, Jacob
Weinstein, Mark Howell, Adrian Booth, Eric Shepherd, Sascha Wildner,
Jim Butterfield, Mark Stacey, Stu Galley, Dorinda Hartmann, Tomas
Schafer, Hans Persson, Gareth Rees, Robert Pelak and many others for
ideas, suggestions and contributions. Scott Forbes created and
maintained the original FAQ.
No newsgroup should be without one!"
>PRAY
Altar
This is the south end of a large temple. In front of you is what appears
to be an altar. In one corner is a small hole in the floor which leads
into darkness. You probably could not get back up it. On the two ends of
the altar are burning candles. On the altar is a large black book, open to
page 570.
>READ BOOK
Commandment #12593
"The purpose of this group and some history of IF" (1.1)
Here in the newsgroup rec.games.int-fiction we discuss games of the
interactive fiction genre, ranging from classic games by companies
such as Infocom and Scott Adams to 'modern' and non-text IF games.
Simply put, the IF genre includes any game that tells a story as part
of the game, usually with the player as the protagonist. The actions
of the player affect the progress of the story, which often centers
around solving puzzles or finding treasure, and leads to an endgame in
which the player 'wins' and completes the adventure.
One of the earliest games that could at least be termed interactive is
Hunt The Wumpus, from the early 1970s. In this game, you have three
arrows, and are trapped in a maze that is a dodecahedron, with the nodes
being rooms and the edges being the room connections. In any room, you
are given hints as to phenomena that are going on in adjacent rooms (you
can't tell from which one though) - breezes from bottomless pits, grunts
from the (very hungry) wumpus, and so on. The wumpus can move, and
the bottomless pits are frequently rearranged by earthquakes. Your
goal is to hit the wumpus with one of your arrows by firing it down a
passageway into an adjacent room.
Interactive *fiction* traces its electronic roots to a 1977 program
named ADVENT, better known as the Colossal Cave Adventure. It was
this program, written by Willie Crowther and Don Woods, that
established many of the features now common to the genre, including
noun/verb parsing (e.g. "TAKE BOOK"), mazes ("You are in a maze of
twisty little passages, all alike") and the basis of most later IF in
fantasy/adventure settings. Soon after this the game Dungeon, or
Zork, was written by MIT grad students; these students were the
nucleus of a 1980 startup company called Infocom, which produced a
version of Zork for the TRS-80 Model I and other machines. This led to
widespread popularity of interactive fiction games, and was later
referred to as the Golden Age of the genre; for several years,
Infocom's products were the top-selling games on the market.
Later events, however, led to the decline of the IF genre. As the
educational level of the average computer user decreased and the
features and capabilities of the average computer increased, the trend
in computer games went to 'arcade' games instead of text.
By 1989 Infocom had been absorbed by another company and destroyed,
leaving a legacy of high-quality, well-written interactive fiction and
a large audience with few sources for good new material. This
newsgroup discusses 'classic' interactive fiction games, new games
keeping the genre alive, and non-text (even non-computer) IF.
>N
Temple
This is the north end of a large temple. On the east wall is an ancient
inscription, probably a prayer in a long-forgotten language. Below the
prayer is a staircase leading down. The west wall is solid granite. The
exit to the north end of the room is through huge marble pillars. There is
a brass bell here.
>READ INSCRIPTION
"Other USENET newsgroups discussing interactive fiction" (1.2)
Many people make the mistake of assuming that rec.arts.int-fiction
and rec.games.int-fiction are the same group. Nobody in rgif can answer
programming questions, and few people in raif want to see hint requests.
Be very careful when crossposting to both newsgroups: do both audiences
care? Even if you do crosspost, direct followups to the appropriate
forum with a Followup-To: header line.
_rec.arts.int-fiction_ is a newsgroup for *authors* of interactive
fiction, and discusses adventure development systems such as Inform
and TADS, features of a 'good' IF game and how to implement them,
techniques, hazards, tradeoffs, etc. If you're thinking about writing
a game (as opposed to playing one), rec.arts.int-fiction is your
group. is the
FAQ.
_comp.sys.amiga.games_ discusses all types of computer games for the
Commodore Amiga computer, including IF games for that machine.
_comp.sys.mac.games_ has a similar charter, discussing games for the
Apple Macintosh line of computers.
_comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure_ discusses a subset of the topics
covered in rec.games.int-ficton: Those interactive fiction games
available for the IBM PC. If you're looking for IBM-specific info
about a game, or for info about a game available only on IBM PCs, you
may find help in c.s.i.p.g.adventure.
The _rec.games.mud_ hierarchy discusses MUD (multi-user dungeon) games.
The _rec.games.frp_ groups discuss fantasy role-playing games (not
necessarily computer-based) such as Dungeons & Dragons.
_rec.games.roguelike.misc_ is for general discussion of games in the
"Rogue" family (games that display an ASCII representation of a
dungeon and its contents).
_rec.games.roguelike.announce_ is a moderated newsgroup for announcements
about Rogue-like games. The other groups in the roguelike hierarchy each
discuss a specific game in the "Rogue" genre.
>BLORPLE WEST WALL
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.
Nondescript Room
This is a drab, nondescript room. The only exit leads south.
>S
Enchanters' Retreat
Belboz is meditating here.
>BELBOZ, HELLO
"Hello." Belboz doesn't seem pleased to see you.
>ASK BELBOZ FOR A HINT
Belboz looks at you suspiciously. "Only the rawest apprentice would ask
for a hint (or post one) without observing proper netiquette."
"Netiquette, hints, and bug reports" (1.3)
Before asking for a hint, consider that many people before you have
asked for hints. At ftp.gmd.de there are numerous hint files and
walkthroughs available. See question 1.6 for more information.
1. Above all else, don't spoil the puzzle or game for other people who
are reading the newsgroup but didn't ask for a hint. One common way of
doing this, if you're asking for a hint, is to put the number of points
you have earned so far, or the area of the game you're dealing with,
in the subject line, so that people who are not yet that far into the
game can skip your post.
When asking for or giving hints, try to put spoiler warnings in the
subject line and text, and if possible, a form feed character in the main
text before the spoiling content.
Good example:
>Subject: Re: ZORK I at 10 points (SPOILERS)
>
>J. Random writes:
>>How do I get into the white house?
>
>SPOILERS
>Have you tried running for President?
*** A special note on the "form feed" character: The ASCII
character 12, if inserted as the _first_character_of_a_line_ in the
text of an article, causes most newsreaders to pause and require
the user to hit a key before continuing. This feature is useful
when protecting part of a message from people who don't want to see
it, as it gives them the option of hitting "n" instead and skipping
the SPOILER section.
Some newsreaders display this character as a caret followed by the
letter L, thus: ^L . This is *not* the same as typing the two
characters ^ and L. Also, it is very important that the "form
feed" character be kept as the first character on the line. If you
reply to a message and put a ">" in front of the form feed, it
won't work, the message will be spoiled and scores of angry netters
will tear you limb from limb (okay, maybe not that drastic, but
it's bad manners).
Most machines can generate a form feed character if you type a
CTRL-L or (in "vi") CTRL-V CTRL-L. If you can't generate a form
feed character, either use 24 blank lines or save this message and
delete everything but the form feed below.
The last character on this line is an ASCII form feed:
2. If you're asking for a hint, please try to ask in a way that
doesn't spoil the puzzle, or spoil other puzzles in the game.
Describe whatever details are relevant, but don't post the answer to
every other puzzle you've solved up to this point.
Good example:
>I've figured out what the gold machine is for, but I keep
>getting killed whenever I try to use it.
Bad example:
>I used the gold machine to send a message to Orkan, but the
>Warlock noticed my presence and turned me into bat guano.
If you can't ask the question without revealing part of the
puzzle, protect the question with spoiler warnings as above.
3. When giving a hint, please try to give just enough info to send
the adventurer on her way. Please don't post the exact sequence
of moves required to win the game from this point, or solve the next
two puzzles in order to get the ball rolling.
Good example:
>Have you explored the area outside the house?
Bad example:
>There's a window on the east side of the house that you can
>squeeze through in order to get in. Don't bother with the
>front door; there's no way to open it. Don't eat the food,
>either: You'll need it later to feed the microscopic dog.
Other common messages seen on rec.games.int-fiction involve bugs that
the poster has found (or thinks they have found) in a particular game.
A bug is broadly defined as behaviour that was not intended by the
author. The most common error is one where characters or objects
behave in strange ways; less common is the existence of ways of getting
around a puzzle that the author did not intend. Lists of known errors
in Infocom games are published in some editions of XYZZYnews and on
the Infocom home page. See below for the locations of these resources.
If you know that you've found a bug or contradiction in a game,
please refrain from posting about it to the entire newsgroup. There is
no point in embarrassing the author. Almost every author provides an
electronic-mail address, which you should use to inform her about the
bugs. Many authors don't see everything on rgif, or don't read it at
all.
On the other hand, if you're not sure whether what you've encountered
is a bug or not, it makes sense to post about it; don't forget to
put spoiler warnings in where appropriate.
Belboz looks at you expectantly.
>ASK BELBOZ ABOUT THE DUSTY SCROLL
Belboz looks at you suspiciously. "Curious little enchanter, aren't you?"
"Magazines about interactive fiction" (1.4)
There are two magazines archived at ftp.gmd.de which are still
producing new issues. They are:
SPAG ("Society for the Preservation of Interactive Fiction") and
XYZZYnews (Xyzzy is a magic word from Adventure)
They are both excellent. Issues are made available in either PDF
(requiring an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format reader) or in
plain text. The magazines are free. XYZZYnews encourages subscription
by giving giving subscribers the latest issue before everyone else.
SPAG focuses almost entirely on game reviews.
Someone went through the first 33 issues of a PC-only magazine
called SynTax and made the IF-relevant files and articles
available in a file at ftp.gmd.de. It's a promotion for the
subscription-only magazine.
Everything is available at
Belboz looks at you expectantly.
>FROTZ BELBOZ
Belboz stops you with a word of power.
"Ah! Now I have you, charlatan! Fool me twice? Never!" He rises to his
feet, makes a threatening gesture, and you find yourself transported
to....
Maze
This is part of a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
>PLUGH
A hollow voice says:
"The ftp.gmd.de IF archive and other Net resources" (1.5)
The interactive fiction archive site at ftp.gmd.de (129.26.8.90) is by
far the largest collection of interactive fiction games, development
systems, "walkthrough" solution files and related IF materials
available. It is generously maintained by Volker Blasius. Uploads of
new material are encouraged; please send e-mail to blasius@gmd.de when
uploading. It is at .
Other mirror sites:
in the USA:
in Finnland:
in Australia:
The other area where considerable information is available is through
WWW. The known offerings:
+
A browsable hypertext index of the ftp.gmd.de archive. You can look
through the file listings, click on a file name to download it, and view
game reviews (contributions of reviews encouraged). Some information for
Inform developers is also available.
+
The unofficial "Infocom" home page, compiling a lot of widely
distributed Infocom-specific information into a very usable form.
There's articles on Infocom published in the computer industry and
in Infocom's own newsletter, as well as invisiclues, maps and known bugs
on every Infocom text adventure.
+
John's Interactive Fiction home page offers a hypertext version
of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica, the rec.arts.int-fiction FAQ,
and some commentary on parsers.
+
Maintained by Paul Gilbert, this provides a convenient, annotated
"reference" to net-accessible IF materials.
+
A huge pile of game-reviews written by Carl Muckenhoupt with links
to the files they're talking about, specific to ftp.gmd.de, and
primarily the games/pc directory.
>S.W.SW.W.W.
Flathead Ocean
Passing alongside the shore now is an old boat, reminiscent of an ancient
Viking ship. Standing on the prow of the ship is an old and crusty sailor,
peering out over the misty ocean.
>HELLO SAILOR
The seaman looks up and maneuvers the boat toward shore. He cries out:
"Games, walkthroughs, hints, source and other FAQs" (1.6)
Thanks to Magnus Olsson for much of the info in this section.
Games and source:
+ ftp.gmd.de in games/, programming/, infocom/compilers/inform/,
and their subdirectories.
+ Source code for some text adventures (including various versions of
Colossal Cave/ADVENT, Dungeon/Zork and World) have been posted to
comp.sources.games and comp.sources.misc. They're available from FTP
sites archiving these groups, such as ftp.uu.net.
+ Some Macintosh IF games are available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu,
including Colossal Cave and Dungeon. [Unnkulian may be there too.]
+ Amiga IF games are available from any Aminet mirror site, such as
ftp.wustl.edu or ftp.netnet.net, in the pub/aminet/games/role directory.
Walkthroughs and hints. A walkthrough is a start-to-finish "most direct
route" way to finish the game, which guarantees that you will miss out on
lots of the pleasant details that make IF worthwhile. Hint files are
usually in the question-and-answer form. Infocom's variation on this was
the Invisiclue booklet: answers were printed in invisible ink and you used
a special marker to make them visible when you needed a hint. The
electronic version of this (receiving progressively more hints on the
screen) is implemented in many games. Type HINT or HELP to see if they're
available. There is also a shareware-ish program called UHS ("Universal
Hint System") which has many hint files compiled for it; beware of the
author's registration scheme and the lack of attention given to porting
the UHS reader to non-PC platforms.
+ ftp.gmd.de in the solutions/ and infocom/hints/ directories.
+ Walkthroughs for many popular IF games are available from ftp.uu.net,
in the directory /pub/games/solutions/.
+ The Invisiclues for all v3 to v5 Infocom games are available through
the Infocom home page at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pete/Infocom.
Relevant mini-FAQs and information compilations:
+
A history of the interactive fiction genre. (Hans Persson)
+
A list of computer games related to J.R.R.Tolkien's works.
(Fredrik Ekman)
+
Games, authors, history, statistics, interpreters, and tools for
Infocom games. (Paul David Doherty)
+
Infocom game information table. (Paul D. Smith)
+
FAQ by Gareth Rees on what to do if you have an Infocom-format
game file (.z3, .z5, .z7, .z8 or .dat) but don't know how to "make it
go". See also section 2.8 of this FAQ.
+
FAQ by stevgrif@moc.govt.nz (Stephen Griffiths) oriented
towards owners of MS-DOS machines who wish to play any of the games
at ftp.gmd.de. Covers all different games systems there are. Very
helpful if you're stuck.
+
The archive of Level 9 games. See question 3.3 for more information.
Please accept this gift. You may find it useful!" He throws something
which falls near you in the sand, then sails off toward the west, singing a
lively, but somewhat uncouth, sailor song. The boat sails silently through
the mist and out of sight.
A seedy-looking individual with a large bag just wandered through the room.
On the way through, he quietly abstracted some valuables from your
possession, mumbling something about:
"Disclaimer and copyright/trademark notice" (1.7)
This FAQ Copyright 1995 by Stephen Van Egmond. Reproduction of this
document and printing it for personal use is OK. Putting it into an
off-Net compilation without permission is not OK. Ask first.
All trademarks remain the property of their respective companies.
>XYZZY (1.8)
Nothing happens. In the distance you hear a voice:
People frequently ask about the origins of XYZZY. From the Jargon file
3.2.0:
:xyzzy: /X-Y-Z-Z-Y/, /X-Y-ziz'ee/, /ziz'ee/, or /ik-ziz'ee/
adj. [from the ADVENT game] The canonical `magic
word'. This comes from ADVENT, in which the idea is to
explore an underground cave with many rooms and to collect the
treasures you find there. If you type `xyzzy' at the appropriate
time, you can move instantly between two otherwise distant points.
If, therefore, you encounter some bit of magic, you might
remark on this quite succinctly by saying simply "Xyzzy!"
"Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has
protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system will
let you do it anyway." "Xyzzy!"
Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op
command on several OSes; in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it
would typically respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT
did if the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player
had performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent
32-bit versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much
happens".
The popular `minesweeper' game under Microsoft Windows has a
cheat mode triggered by the command `xyzzy'
that turns the top-left pixel of the screen different colors
depending on whether or not the cursor is over a bomb.
>SE
Maze
This is part of a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Someone carrying a large bag is casually leaning against one of the walls
here. He does not speak, but it is clear from his aspect that the bag will
be taken only over his dead body.
>KILL THIEF WITH SWORD
A good slash, but it misses the thief by a mile. The thief comes in from
the side, feints, and inserts the blade into your ribs.
It appears that that last blow was too much for you.
I'm afraid you are dead.
**** You have died ****
Press any key to continue
16032 100664 52 52 110344 6177020645 7647 0 ustar news news Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,rec.arts.int-fiction,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure,comp.sys.mac.games.adventure,comp.sys.amiga.games,comp.sys.acorn.games,comp.os.os2.games
Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!blackbush.xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!torn!watserv3.uwaterloo.ca!undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!svanegmo
From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: rec.games.int-fiction FAQ part 1 - Introduction
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
Message-ID:
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 17:39:31 GMT
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Organization: University of Waterloo
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A strange little man in a long cloak appears suddenly in the room. He is
wearing a high pointed hat embroidered with astrological signs. He has a
long, stringy, and unkempt beard.
The Wizard draws forth his wand and waves it in your direction. It begins
to glow with a faint blue glow. The Wizard, in a deep and resonant voice,
speaks the word "FAQ!" He cackles gleefully.
This is part 2 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
Contents of this file:
2.0 Infocom
2.1 Whatever happened to Infocom, anyway?
2.2 Can I reach any of the original Infocommies?
2.3 Classic Infocom titles available now
2.4 Classic Infocom releases you might find used somewhere
2.5 Modern (i.e. Activision) releases
2.6 Infocom products not (yet) re-released
2.7 Missing or hard-to-find information in LToI packaging
2.8 Z-machine interpreters, vocabulary listers, utilities,
and Specification numbers.
2.9 Infocom copyrights and playing on other platforms
2.10 Creating your own (Infocom) adventure games
Part 1 covers the elements of rec.games.int-fiction.
Part 3 covers non-Infocom game producers.
The current maintainer is Stephen Van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca.
The dream dissolves around you as his last words echo through the void....
>AIMFIZ FORD PREFECT
As you cast the spell, the moldy scroll vanishes!
After a momentary dizziness, you realize that your location has changed,
although Ford Prefect is not in sight...
Dark
You can make out a shadow moving in the dark.
>LOOK AT SHADOW
The shadow is vaguely Ford Prefect-shaped.
Vogon Hold
This is a squalid room filled with grubby mattresses, unwashed cups, and
unidentifiable bits of smelly alien underwear. A door lies to port, and an
airlock lies to starboard.
Ford removes the bottle of Santraginean Mineral Water which he's been
waving under your nose. He tells you that you are aboard a Vogon
spaceship, and gives you some peanuts.
>ASK FORD ABOUT INFOCOM
A long silence tells you that Ford Prefect isn't interested in talking
about Infocom.
Ford yawns. "Matter transference always tires me out. I'm going to take a
nap." He places something on top of his satchel. "If you have any
questions, here's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (Footnote 14).
Ford lowers his voice to a whisper. "I'm not supposed to tell you this,
but you'll never be able to finish the game without consulting the Guide
about lots of stuff." As he curls up in a corner and begins snoring, you
pick up the Guide.
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT INFOCOM
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
"Whatever happened to Infocom, anyway?" (2.1)
This info is taken from [what was once] the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
FAQ, with thanks to Infocom's Stu Galley for passing it along:
[Thanks to Dave Lebling (Infocom co-founder) for the definitive info
on this]
Infocom never went out of business. It went deeply into debt to
develop a database product (named Cornerstone) that was a commercial
flop. It went shopping for a merger and found Activision, which later
changed its name to Mediagenic. What did happen is that in May of
1989 Mediagenic closed down the "real" Infocom in Cambridge, MA, and
laid (almost) everyone off. All the releases up through Zork Zero,
Shogun, Journey, and Arthur were developed in Cambridge.
Mediagenic licensed the UK rights to the games to Virgin Mastertronic
about two years ago.
Mediagenic went nearly bankrupt, was taken over by outside investors,
and taken through a so-called "pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy" in
January, 1992. As part of that process, they changed their name back
to Activision, moved from Silicon Valley down to LA, and recently
merged with a company owned by the investors (called The Disc
Company).
Activision continues to release new products under the Infocom label,
all of which so far have been CD-ROM graphical adventures which have
been met with dour grunts of disapproval from rec.*.int-fiction denizens.
The original text adventures can still be purchased.
You begin to feel distinctly groggy.
> LOOK UNDER MATTRESS FOR IMPLEMENTOR
"Hey, anybody know how I can reach Steve Meretzky?" (2.2)
The original Infocom crew has moved on to other positions. Any kind of
"where are they now" would probably be wrong, out of date, and almost
certainly unwelcome. David Lebling has recently surfaced on
rec.*.int-fiction to comment from time to time, and so haz Liz Cyr
Jones. Other implementors may be lurking; nobody knows.
You see nothing else interesting.
> CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT CLASSIC INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.3)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
Classic Infocom is generally defined to be anything before Return to
Zork. Activision owns the rights to all the Infocom games and
trademarks, and occasionally releases them in some repackaged form or
another.
Activision is currently [footnote 42] selling a compilation of classic
Infocom called "Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces". This CD (which
works on PC or Mac) meets practically every wish of the
rec.games.int-fiction readership, except for wide availablility.
There is little Activision can do to force stores to carry their
product.
The CD includes the following games:
A Mind Forever Voyaging; Arthur: The Quest For Excalibur; Ballyhoo;
Border Zone; Bureaucracy; Cutthroat; Deadline; Enchanter;
Hollywood Hijinx; Infidel; Journey; Leather Goddesses Of Phobos;
Lurking Horror; Moonmist; Nord And Bert Couldn't Make Head Or Tail Of
It; Planetfall; Seastalker; Sherlock; Sorcerer; Spellbreaker;
Starcross; Stationfall; Suspect; Suspended; Trinity; Wishbringer;
Witness; Zork Zero; Zork I; Zork II; Zork III; Beyond Zork.
Notable by their absence are Hitch Hikers' and Shogun, which are
not included since the right to distribute those games has reverted
back to the original authors.
Also included is the top 6 winning entries from the 1995 Interactive
Fiction authorship competition, a "Very Lost Treasures of Infocom"
section containing old game ideas, statements of principle, and
e-mail archives from Infocom's heyday. All maps and documentation are
provided in Adobe Acrobat format which can be printed out.
The packaging bears little resemblance to the originals; notably absent
are the plastic or metal trinkets that were included in packages (for
example, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy included peril-sensitive
sunglasses, a "Don't Panic" button, a zip-lock baggie containing a
microscopic space fleet, and printed orders for the destruction of your
home and planet). Infocom's original packaging is legendary in the
software industry.
Cost: about $20 US, it has been seen in reasonable quantity at Best
Buy stores and should be at Babbages', Sofware Plus and others. It can
also be ordered direct from Activision (visit www.activision.com; they
will "shortly" be having online ordering but you can get their 1-800
number there).
If you are looking for pirated copies of classic products, don't bother
asking on this newsgroup. In fact, don't bother at all. Many of the
games rely on materials in the game package for copy protection, either
in the form of knowledge you would have by reading it, or data that you
need to look up.
Ford is curled up on the bed, snoring loudly.
> FOOTNOTE 42
"Previous Infocom compilations you still might find" (2.4)
Infocom, in its pre-Activision days released trilogies (The Zork
Trilogy, for example, or the Enchanter trilogy containing Enchanter,
Sorcerer and Wishbringer) containing a subset of the trinkets found in
the original packages. Like almost all other original Infocom packages,
these are now collectors' items.
Activision has released its own series of compilations:
"The Lost Treasures of Infocom I" is a collection of 20 Infocom games.
You may be able to obtain it through mail-order outlets or used from
someone who doesn't want it anymore. The package was available for the
IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga. The CD and
floppy editions were identical.
The games in LToI I were:
Zork I Enchanter Deadline Starcross
Zork II Sorcerer Witness Suspended
Zork III Spellbreaker Suspect Planetfall
Zork Zero Ballyhoo Infidel Stationfall
Beyond Zork Moonmist Lurking Horror Hitchhiker's Guide
The LToI 1 package was available for the Apple IIgs through the Big
Red Computer Club, which sought and received permission from
Activision to port the games to the IIgs.
The package includes a manual which contains photocopies of all the
original manuals and game pieces (such as the trading cards from
"Spellbreaker", which are needed to solve a puzzle in the game), but
some information is missing -- see section 2.7 below.
The package also contains a hint book, which looks like somebody took
all the Invisiclues booklets and typed them into a text file. The
hint book is riddled with spelling mistakes, formatting errors and
other problems, but in most cases the mistakes are not serious enough
to keep you from using it.
"Lost Treasures of Infocom II" contained most (but not all) of the
remaining Infocom text adventure games, and retailed for $29.95 through
retail and mail order outlets.
The games in the 3.5 disk version were:
Seastalker Wishbringer A Mind Forever Voyaging
Trinity Cutthroats Hollywood Hijinx
Bureaucracy Border Zone Plundered Hearts
Sherlock Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It
The CD-ROM version contained Shogun, Arthur and Journey in addition.
LToI2 was produced for the Macintosh and PC only. Users of other
platforms can play the non-graphical games by transferring the files
to their machine and playing them with a ZIP. (See question 2.9.)
This package contains photocopies of the original packaging, but does
NOT contain a hint book: Instead it contains a 1-900 number which you
can call to receive hints which is probably dead by now. Some
information is missing for Bueaucracy. See question 2.7.
After Lost Treasures, Infocom released its topical Collections. These
are considered inferior to just about every other collection:
Mystery Collection: Ballyhoo, Deadline, Witness, Moonmist, Sherlock
Adventure Collection: Border Zone, Plundered Hearts, Cutthroats,
Trinity, Infidel
Comedy Collection: Bureaucracy, Hollywood Hijinx, Nord & Bert
Fantasy Collection: Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Seastalker,
Wishbringer
Science Fiction Collection: Hitchhiker's, Suspended, AMFV, Starcross,
Stationfall
There is also the Zork Anthology, published by Activision in 1994 as a CD
companion to the pseudo-Infocom title "Return to Zork". It contains
Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, and oddly,
Planetfall.
You begin to feel indistinctly groggy.
> CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT ANCIENT COMPILATIONS (2.5)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
You begin to feel very indistinct.
>EAT PEANUTS
You feel stronger as the peanuts replace some of the protein you lost in
the matter transference beam.
An announcement is coming over the ship's intercom. "Ed tgrykonx jcavfluu
nx jchotha otoyefti ltruvupirbi swrotrueft ochoollzitchogrya rd tfudeftd t
ow ctrufudx jp wkonvuphuvd te h oulpkonz zollcava ri li lo ti l oe hfudx
jirbtrugrys gvupp work oo sthaquio ta btoyr gkonr ga r or gz zr gi skwazitz
zkwaa rerl ow cfluirbwroorktoyfimthad tulp oe he hfluo simbchogryr gu ni
s."
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT RECENT INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.5)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
Activision is working to build a following for Infocom's universes
based on the modern trend to humongous games sprawling across hundreds
of megabytes. Their offerings to date:
_Return to Zork_
A mid-1993 entry for the IBM PC, set far in the "future" of the Zork
series. Difficult, hunt-the-pixels, graphical interface. A
Macintosh version was released in mid-1994. PC Demo is available.
_Zork: Nemesis_
A graphical CD-ROM adventure released in 1995. The interface has
improved somewhat; the game includes amusing references to the Zork
universe, but the plot is said to be irregular and the puzzles
somewhat inconsistent. Said to be a huge improvement over RTZ.
_Planetfall: The Search for Floyd_
Due out in 1995, a graphical adventure written by Steve Meretzky,
Richard Manning and Hans Beimler. Infocom has reportedly learned
their lesson with Return to Zork's interface and will be improving
it considerably for their 1995 games.
There is also another Zork adventure coming perhaps early next year.
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT OTHER INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.6)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
There are a handful of games and other Infocom products that are not
included in any of the compilations. These products range from
hard-to-find early Infocom products to non-IF games made by other
companies and marketed under the Infocom brand name.
For more information about Infocom products, version numbers and
Infocom products that were never released, see Paul David's Doherty's
"Infocom Fact Sheet", which is periodically posted on
rec.games.int-fiction and is also avaialable at
.
Hard-to-find and early products:
_The Infocom Sampler_ (pre-1984?)
This was the first of three demo products written by Infocom,
containing (we think) excerpts from Zork I. The existence of this
sampler is deduced mainly because a later version of the Sampler has
serial number "ID2", suggesting an earlier "ID1".
_The Infocom Sampler_ (1984, 1985)
This was the second of three samplers, containing excerpts from Zork
I, Planetfall, Infidel and The Witness, and also containing a unique
two-room puzzle that involved catching a butterfly. Available for
virtually every computer on the market in 1985 (including the Osborne,
Kaypro II, TRS-80 Color Computer, etc.) Superseded in 1987 by the
third and final Infocom Sampler.
_The Infocom Sampler_ (Fall 1987)
Third and final sampler containing puzzles from Zork I, Trinity,
Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Wishbringer. IBM PC, Apple II and
Commodore 64.
_Fooblitzky_ (Summer 1985)
A graphical game involving deductive logic, by Marc Blank, Michael
Berlyn, Brian Cody, Poh C. Lim and Paula Maxwell. IBM PC, Apple II,
Atari XL/XE series.
_Shogun_
_Journey_
_Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur_
Versions for the Apple IIe and Amiga were produced, but are now rare.
IBM and Mac versions are on LToI 2 CD-ROMs as well as Masterpieces.
_Leather Goddesses of Phobos_ (Summer 1986)
Activision chose not to include the original LGoP in either of the
Lost Treasures packages, possibly to prevent confusion with the
inferior sequel (see below) that was published at about the same time.
A coupon in the LToI II package offered the IBM PC version of this
game for an additional $10; versions for other machines, including the
Apple II, Macintosh, Atari and Amiga, are difficult to obtain.
_Leather Goddesses of Phobos II: Gas Pump Girls Meet the
Pulsating Inconvenience from Planet X_
This 1992 offering from "Infocom" had more in common with Leisure
Suit Larry than with the original Leather Goddesses. Available for the
IBM PC.
_The New Zork Times_ / _The Status Line_ (1983? - 1988)
The legendary Infocom newsletter. The name was changed in mid-1986
due to threatened legal action by a lesser-known newspaper serving a
smaller area (Infocom promptly began using old newspapers for packing
material when shipping games to their customers; by coincidence the NYT
was the paper of choice for this purpose). Thirteen issues were
published under the name 'NZT'; one issue (Spring 1986) was titled
'****' and the remaining ten were published as 'TSL'. The newsletters
are now collector's items, and a complete set is rare. Some articles
are archived at
and at
There is an effort underway on rec.games.int-fiction to create
complete electronic editions of these newsletters. Watch this space
for more information.
_Cornerstone_ (Fall 1984)
Infocom's one and only attempt at a commercial business product (see
section 2.1, above); probably of interest only to purists. IBM PC
version only; description in Winter 1985 NZT.
Non-Infocom "Infocom" offerings:
_Infocomics_ (1988)
Many believe that this is the point where Infocom-as-a-publisher ended
and Infocom-as-a-brand-name-for-lesser-products began. IBM PC, Apple
II, Commodore 64/128. At least four of these $12 'comic books' were
published:
Lane Mastodon vs. The Blubbermen
Gamma Force in Pit of a Thousand Screams
ZorkQuest I: Assault on Egreth Castle
ZorkQuest II: The Crystal of Doom
_Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth_ (Fall 1988)
Activision purchased the rights to this Macintosh game from Simulated
Environment Systems in late 1988, and reworked the text and user
interface. The game is a graphical RPG similar to a number of D&D-type
games on the market. Infocom planned to release this game for the
Apple IIgs and IBM, but only the Macintosh version was ever
published.
_BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception_ (Fall 1988)
Activision now sells this game and its sequel (_BattleTech: The
Crescent Hawk's Revenge_) as part of a three-game package of
BattleTech-related games. Developed by Westwood Associates.
"Available in November [1988] for the IBM, in February [1989] for the
Commodore 64/128, and in [Spring 1989] for the Apple II series and the
Amiga." The IBM, Amiga and Commodore 64 versions have been sighted;
the status of the Apple II version is unknown.
_Simon The Sorcerer_
Infocom was used as the label for IBM and Mac distribution for this
Sierra-style graphical adventure. Amiga distribution was by Adventure
Soft.
_Circuit's Edge_
IBM, Amiga, and "other 8-bit platforms". A science-fiction RPG based
on Effinger's world in the story "When Gravity Fails".
_Mines of Titan_
IBM, Amiga, Apple IIe and "other 8-bit platforms". A science-fiction
RPG set on the moon Titan. Originally released as _The Mars Saga_ on
the 64. Written by Westwood Associates.
Guards burst in and grab you and Ford, who comes slowly awake. They drag
you down the corridor to a large cabin, where they strap you into large,
menacing chairs...
Captain's Quarters, in the poetry appreciation chair
This is the cabin of the Vogon Captain. You and Ford are strapped into
poetry appreciation chairs. The Captain is indescribably hideous,
indescribably blubbery, and indescribably mid-to-dark green. He is holding
samples of his favourite poetry.
>ASK THE CAPTAIN ABOUT MISSING GAME PIECES (2.7)
One of the guards lightly bashes your skull with the butt of his weapon
and says (Ford translates for you):
Here is a list of missing or hard-to-find info in the Lost Treasures
game packages. All have been typed in and are available at the ftp site
in the directory infocom/shipped-documentation.
_Ballyhoo_
The original packaging included an advertisement for a radio station,
WPDL AM at 1170 KHz. You will need to tune the radio to this
frequency (or TUNE RADIO TO WPDL) to get a vital clue.
_Lurking Horror_
Your Login ID, an important part of one of the early puzzles, is
*not* missing from the LToI manual. It's just hard to find. (Hint:
It's written somewhere on your Student ID Card.)
_Bureaucracy_
Some important information from the Popular Paranoia advertisement is
missing, as well as the Beezer card application in triplicate is
absent from the LToI 2 package.
_Moonmist_
Your friend Tamara will make frequent references to the letters she
wrote asking for your help; unfortunately, these letters are not
included in the LToI package. The full text of these two letters is
available from the ftp.gmd.de archive, with many thanks to Mark Howell
for typing in these letters from the original package.
_Zork Zero_
The original documentation for Zork Zero contained information about
the game's on-screen mapping, which may be activated by typing in the
command "MAP" at any time during the game. No mention is made of this
in LToI 1.
Also, some versions of the LToI package may be missing a (vital) map
of the "Rockville Estates" section of the game. The map is a
blueprint of a construction site ("Frobozz Magic Construction
Company") showing an 8 x 8 grid of octagonal rooms connected by lines
representing passages. You cannot win the game without the
information on this map.
Some copies of the LToI manual include this map on a page that is
apparently numbered "40b" (the preceding page is "40a", and the next
page is 41 -- the page with the map is not numbered), suggesting that
the map was inserted after the first printing. Early IBM versions of
the LToI manual include the map on page 2 of the Zork I instructions.
If your copy of the manual is missing page 40b, and you cannot find
the map anywhere else in the game package, call Activision technical
support at 310-207-4500 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm PST) and explain the
situation to them. They should provide you with a replacement map.
If all else fails, the ASCII drawing on the next page is a rough but
accurate rendering of the "Rockville Estates" blueprint for Infocom's
Zork Zero. This map is provided for use by legitimate owners of the
Lost Treasures of Infocom package only.
0 1 2 3 4 5.... 6.... 7 Goobar -
.' .' .' I left my hardhat
8 9 10 11 12....13 14 15 out in lot 0.
: .' .' Please pick it up
16 17 18 19 20 21 22....23 Thanks,
`. .' .' .' Quizbo
24 25 26....27 28 29 30....31
: .' .' :
32 33 34....35 36 37 38....39
: .' .' : .' To
40 41 42....43 44....45 46 47....GUH-95
: `. .' : .' `. .' .'
48 49 50 51....52 53 54 55
`. : `. : `.
56....57....58 59 60 61....62....63
._____________________________
Work still to be performed in Phase Two: |Frobozz Magic Construction Co
* Removal of temporary passages | ROCKVILLE ESTATES
* Installation of emergency exits | Phase Two, showing all work
* Installation of sprinkler system | completed through 29-Mum-880
* Construction of Concierge apartment | 1:440 | drawn by S. Fzortbar
The Vogon Captain says, "Ofudgrythafudo tw cchoe ho tz z ocavtrup wwroz zl
mfluz ztruqui." A guard grabs you and Ford, and drags you toward the hold.
Ford whispers, "Don't worry, I'll think of something!"
Vogon Hold
In the corner is a glass case with a switch and a keyboard.
It looks like the glass case contains:
an atomic vector plotter
Ford begins trying to talk the guard into a sudden career change.
>TYPE "HELLO"
The hold of the Vogon ship is virtually undamaged by the explosion of the
glass case. You, however, are blasted into tiny bits and smeared all over
the room. Several cleaning robots fly in and wipe you neatly off the
walls.
**** You have died ****
Your guardian angel, draped in white, appears floating in the nothingness
before you. "Gotten in a bit of a scrape, eh?" he asks, writing
frantically in a notebook. "I'd love to chat, but we're so busy this
month." The angel twitches his nose, and the nothingness is replaced by...
Darkness
It is pitch black. You could be eaten by a zmachine.
>WHAT IS A ZMACHINE? (2.8)
A zmachine or ZIP (Z-machine Interpreter Program) is a program that
interprets and runs Infocom game data files. Infocom used a
way-ahead-of-their-time implementation scheme that allowed them to
develop one game that would run on any of 26 different computers,
using a ZIP program specific to that computer and a data file common
to all machines.
The Z-machine specification underwent several extensions at Infocom.
The first two versions are obscure and you aren't very likely to
encounter them. Version 3 ("Standard") is the format for the majority
of the files in the Lost Treasures of Infocom series. Version 4
("Plus") was a brief experiment that quickly lead to version 5
("Advanced"), a size suitable for creating fairly large adventures of
the magnitude of Curses or Trinity (about 256K). Version 6
("Graphical") has recently been deciphered and can handle story files
about twice as large as version 5.
Until version 6 arrived, all the Z-machines were text-only. Version
6 added some graphics primitives and is the format used in Arthur,
Journey, Shogun, and Zork Zero.
With the release of Inform 5.5, the public-domain compiler for
Infocom format files (see below), Graham Nelson has proposed two new
versions (7 and 8), the first non-Infocom "extensions" to the
standard. Version 8 is identical to version 5 but with twice the
storage (512K). Version 7 has not yet been used in any released game.
Mark Howell, author of Zip, has made available "ztools", a collection
of C source files for dumping vocabulary, version, font, graphic and
other information from Infocom games, for converting IBM bootable
disks into story files, and for disassembly of story files to Z-code
assembly language. There are also numerous other "tool" programs for
Infocom files available by other authors for other platforms.
As a point of history, Infocom generated their Z-code files by
compiling the Zork Implementation Language (ZIL) with a compiler named
ZILCH. ZIL is a dialect of a Lisp-like language called MDL. MDL is
ancient history, and ZIL seems to have disappeared entirely, though some
code fragments can be found in back issues of the New Zork Times.
The ftp site has a considerable collection of Z-machine interpreters.
Frotz is the most accurate implementation, but other interpreters may
have more bells and whistles for your particular platform.
They are at .
Gareth Rees maintains a mini-FAQ with information on which
interpreters are recommended for which platforms, and what to do if
you can't find an interpreter for your computer.
There are some other ZIP programs at GMD that are not listed in
Gareth's mini-FAQ. They range in quality, but some are fairly
portable and have interesting source code.
_zmachine_ by Matthias Pfaller
Current version: 2.24
Plays most Z-Code v3 games (except games with sound).
Supports UNIX termcap, MS-DOS, Amiga and Atari ST systems.
Supports sound on the Amiga only.
_pinfocom_ by Paul D. Smith
Current version: 3.0
Plays all Z-Code versions to v5. Includes features to print
vocabulary lists, object trees, and header info for all Z-Code
versions. Supports UNIX termcap and terminfo, MS-DOS, and Amiga
systems. Basically does everything ITF 4.01 does and more
(command-line restore, enhanced command-line editing commands,
stellar Amiga interface, etc.).
_zterp_ by Charles Hannum
Current version: 0.3 alpha
A bare-bones v3 interpreter with source.
You may notice increasing discussion about a particular interpreter
being Specification compliant, where is some number like 1.0.
The "specification" is a document by Graham Nelson, based on earlier
work by the InfoTaskForce, which describes rigorously how a Z-Machine
is supposed to behave. An interpreter is said to be Specification-
compliant when it conforms to this document. Frotz is the only
interpreter compliant with the specification available at the moment.
Some games may eventually require your interpreter adhere to a particular
Speficiation version, especially as the Specfication is extended over
time.
>NE
Oh, no! A lurking Z-machine slithered into the room and devoured you!
**** You have died ****
Now, let's take a look here... Well, you probably deserve another chance.
I can't quite fix you up completely, but you can't have everything.
Potting Room
This light room is full of pot plants, flowers, seeds, ornamental trowels
and other miscellaneous garden implements.
A pair of yellow rubber gloves hangs from a hook on one wall.
Aunt Jemima, who has for years collected varieties of daisy, is engaged in
her regular annual pastime of deciding which species make the best chains.
>ASK JEMIMA ABOUT COPYRIGHTS
Jemima screeches with irritation.
"Copyrights on Infocom products / using other platforms" (2.9)
Since Activision bought Infocom, Activision now owns the copyrights
and trademarks on Infocom's products.
This means it's illegal to have a copy of any Infocom product you
didn't pay for. This may make owners of non-PC, non-Mac computers
despair since the only products shipping are for those two platforms,
but there are options available. You can purchase one of the
anthologies listed above, transfer the data files to your computer
somehow, and use one of the available interpreters to run it. This is
the inherent beauty of Infocom's Z-machine idea. See question 2.8 for
information on interpreters.
Your interpreter should support at least v3 files. Some of the
larger games (Trinity) are version 4 or 5. Zork Zero, Arthur, Journey
and Shogun are v6 games, for which no interpreter is available.
There probably will never be one, since v6 games incorporate lots of
graphics which make them difficult to port to other operating
systems.
There probably isn't a legal problem with doing this. Of course, if you
sell your package, you should destroy the copies you've made.
Copyright issues with respect to samplers, invisiclues, New Zork
Times issues, and other things which Activision, in practice, will
never want to redistribute, have not been resolved.
Activision can be reached at:
Activision/Infocom
P.O. Box 67001
Los Angeles, CA, USA 90067
Order line: 800-477-3650 (US) [anybody have one for Europe?]
Tech support: 310-207-4500 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm PST)
People have had mixed and inconsistent results with Activision. Many
have been told that the Lost Treasures aren't shipping anymore but
after calling back and getting a different operator they were able to
order one. This may have changed with the appearance of the 5 new
collections.
>E.E.S.E.LIE DOWN.SLEEP.
You sleep unexpectedly deeply, but just as you think you are starting to
wake up, you experience a sudden...
Premonition
It is a frosty, clear night, but there is a scent of camp-fires burning in
the distance. You are passing through the landscape as if a ghost, and
all seems faintly unreal. To the east is one side of an animal-hide tent,
but there is no way in from here. To southwest, some soldiers sit around
the embers of a fire. There is a terrible sense of something about to
happen.
>SW
Camp Fire
A motley platoon of soldiers are sitting about the embers of a fire.
>LISTEN
"Creating your own adventure games" (2.10)
Since this part of the FAQ is Infocom-oriented I will tell you that
there is a freely distributable compiler available called Inform which
allows you to generate Infocom-format story files that can be played
with any Z-machine interpreter.
The Inform language and libraries are excellent. They were modelled
based on the requirements for a Zork I-style game and provide the means
to modify the parser, manage timers and daemons, change personalities
and much more. It has C-ish syntax. This system does require a
certain degree of programming knowledge. The documentation (in
3 parts) is pretty good; the 220-page Designers' Manual should be read
even if you don't want to use Inform in favour of a different system,
as it provides an interesting insight into what goes into developing
a game.
There are many other IF development systems available, and some
background and information on them will appear in the next section.
For the best information on the subject, visit rec.arts.int-fiction
and read its FAQ.
>NE. E. N. TAKE IRON MASCOT
The Druid catches sight of your ghostly hand taking the mascot, and
immediately begins her occultations, cursing you and your ill-gotten
gains. But she is unable to make contact with you, and turns furiously to
the tapestry, hissing "lagach" to the Bear. At once a sudden swirl of wind
seems to pull her into the rough cloth, dissolving her to nothing.
You wake up, shivering with dread.
>WAIT
Something feels very wrong indeed. Your hand begins to burn.
In an astonishing freak accident, a meteorite hurtles through the Earth's
atmosphere and then straight through your head. Anyone would think you
had a curse on you (anyone, that is, still able to think).
*** You have died ***
Press any key to continue.
16033 100664 52 52 2106 6177020706 7602 0 ustar news news Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!ka.sub.net!blackbush.xlink.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.be.innet.net!INbe.net!news.nl.innet.net!INnl.net!hunter.premier.net!news.cais.net!newshub.sdsu.edu!newsfeeder.sdsu.edu!newspump.sol.net!news.inc.net!news.itis.com!news
From: crichter@itis.com (Calvin Richter)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: [Masterpieces]: Games Included
Date: 28 Jul 1996 20:55:08 GMT
Organization: Softmart, Inc.
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Message-ID: <4tgk3c$cv4@bill.itis.com>
References:
NNTP-Posting-Host: p52.itis.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII
X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.7
In article , klo@nexusprime.org
says...
>
> Here is the README from the Masterpieces Collection, as originally
>posted by Alan Shutko (ats@hubert.wustl.edu).
So, three games are missing? Hitchhiker, Shogun and Plundered Hearts, by my
count. Hitchhiker and Shogun for copyright reasons. What happened to Plundered
Hearts?
16034 100664 52 52 31636 6177025010 7626 0 ustar news news Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,rec.arts.int-fiction,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure,comp.sys.mac.games.adventure,comp.sys.amiga.games,comp.sys.acorn.games,comp.os.os2.games
Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!blackbush.xlink.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!oleane!jussieu.fr!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!torn!watserv3.uwaterloo.ca!undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!svanegmo
From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: rec.games.int-fiction FAQ part 3 - Other companies + New Development
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
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Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 17:47:04 GMT
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[This section is unsatisfying to me. I would love to talk about Legend
Entertainment, but I don't know anything about them. Can someone help?]
Now, let's take a look here... Well, you probably deserve another chance.
I can't quite fi-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
This is part 3 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
Contents of this file:
3.0 Companies and systems that aren't Infocom
3.1 About other companies
3.2 Level 9 and its games
3.3 The Level 9 FTP site
3.3 Adventure Software Inc. and its games
3.4 The ongoing development of Interactive Fiction
Part 1 covers the elements of rec.games.int-fiction.
Part 2 covers Infocom.
The current maintainer is Stephen van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca.
You are in an amphitheater. The sound of the crowd comes from all
around. There is a gladiator here, holding a weapon and advancing
toward you. The gladiator says:
"Infocom wasn't the only adventure game company, you know" (3.1)
There were 2 other companies dedicated to the production of interactive
fiction games: Level 9 and Adventure International ("Scott Adams
adventures"). In reality, there were much more than two, but these two
seem to have a noticeable following on rec.games.int-fiction. If you
have a personal favourite, ask about it, and someone will probably know.
Level 9 was formed by three brothers in 1982. Their first product was
a port of Adventure to the 8-bit computers that dominated the English
market at the time. Until their shutdown in 1991, they produced over a
dozen adventure games for these machines, the 32K BBC family, and the
Sinclair Spectrum 48K.
Level 9 used a high degree of compression: a typical game of 210
locations, 70 objects, and lots of text could fit into 32K. The
adventure engine had 5 major versions:
. Basic Text: black on white with noun/verb parser
. Advanced Text: yellow on black with faster display
. Basic Graphics: simple line drawings for each location, at a cost
to the amount of text in the game
. Advanced Graphics: dramatically improved parser and the usual
amount of text.
. Interactive Characters: grid-like maps, digitized graphics, and
improved parser with interactive,
independent characters.
Each game was available in three versions for the Sinclair Spectrum:
48K all-text, 48K graphics with reduced text, and 128K graphics with
full text, multiple UNDO and save/restore in RAM.
Adventure International is a company founded by Scott Adams, whose games
used a datafile and interpreter system similar to that of Infocom.
There is a freely distributable interpreter, Scottfree, on ftp.gmd.de.
There were interpreters released for a large number of 8-bit machines,
like the TRS-80, Apple II, Atari 400/800, and Commodore's 8-bit lineup.
The adventures were written using a noun/verb parser, but are considered
to have exciting story lines. I still remember playing the cartridge
version of "Impossible Mission" on my friend's VIC-20.
The gladiator advances menacingly.
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT LEVEL 9 (3.2)
Level 9's games were usually released in triolgies, some more
interrelated than others:
Colossal Adventure, similar to Crowther and Woods'
Adventure Quest, defeat the evil lord with the magic foob
Dungeon Adventure, loot the dead lord's tower, solving the many puzzles
The above three were packaged into a Middle Earth Trilogy (renamed by
the lawyers to Colossal Trilogy). Later, a second Trilogy, this time
with graphics, a nicer parser and some text tweaks, named the Jewels of
Darkness appeared.
Snowball, save the starship from terrorists
Return to Eden, the starship lands and you must find your colony
Worm in Paradise, your colony is now politically corrupt and Orwellian
The above three were packaged into the Silicon Dream Trilogy.
Lords of Time, prance through time to get the artifacts and save us all
Red Moon, Level 9's version of Enchanter
The Price of Magic, a gothic horror -- defeat a corrupted sorcerer;
a follow-on to Red Moon
Time Into Magic is a trilogy of Lords of Time, Red Moon, and The Price
of Magic.
The following games don't appear in any "trilogy":
Emerald Isle, graphical game where you're stranded on an island
Eric the Viking, a which-way type of adventure
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, another choose-your-own-path adventure
Knight Orc, a 16-bit game merging the Silicon Dream Trilogy and The
Jewels of Darkness.
Gnome Ranger, help your female gnome Ingrid find her way home.
Lancelot, a game closely based on the myths presented in "The Once and
Future King".
Gnome Ranger II: Ingrid's Back, where Ingrid must save the village
hall from being bulldozed.
Scape Ghost, where a police officer killed while on duty gets revenge
and saves another officer.
The gladiator advances menacingly!
>SHOW SPECTRUM TO GLADIATOR
"Would you like to get some Level 9 games for that?" (3.3)
There is an ftp archive of many of the games that were released by
Level 9. The ftp site only allows a limited number of connections,
and since it's in Slovenia, it's probably slow. Please try to use it
at night. The games are in the format of the ZX Spectrum; you will
probably not find one these days. PC owners can use the ZX emulator
that is there.
The remaining games are available under the snapshots directory;
the filenames (e.g. "adquest128k.zip") should adequately explain
which games are which, and for what size of machine they are intended.
The gladiator's weapon swishes through the air, narrowly missing you!
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT SCOTT ADAMS (3.4)
"Mr. Adams was never in the business of writing the Scott Adams adventure
games."
- _The Dilbert FAQ_ by Dogbert
Adventure International released several lines of games using the same
datafile format and various interpreter revisions.
The Scott Adams Classic Adventure Series:
Adventure Land: Ordinary treasure hunting.
Pirate Adventure / Pirate's Cove: Search an island.
Mission Impossible / Secret Mission / Impossible Mission: Stop the
reactor from going kaboom.
There was also Vodoo Castle, The Count, Strange Odyssey, Fun House
Mystery, Pyramid of Doom, Ghost Town, Savage Island parts 1 and 2,
Golden Voyage, Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle, and Adventures of
Buckaroo Bonzai.
Questprobe Series: The adventures in this series feature characters
from Marvel Comics.
The Hulk, Spiderman, and Fantastic Four. The latter used a different
adventure engine to allow control of two different characters.
There was a separate line of games sold by Adventure International using
a different datafile format: Curse of Crowley Manor, Escape from Traam,
San Francisco 1906, and Saigon: The Final Days.
Other games include Labyrinth of Crete, Return to Pirate's Island, Stone
of Sisyphus, and Morton's fork.
In the UK, there were many companies related to Adventure International,
such as Horrorsoft, Tynesoft, Adventure Soft UK, and Adventure
International UK. More information can be found in Adventure Game
History, by Hans Persson, from whose work all of the above comes.
The gladiator swings his sword, remo-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
Darkness
It is pitch dark, and you can't see a thing.
>LIGHT
What do you want to light?
>LANTERN
You switch the brass lantern on.
In Debris Room
You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface. A
low wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris here, but
an awkward canyon leads upward and west.
A note on the wall says, "Magic word XYZZY."
A three foot black rod with a rusty star on one end lies nearby.
A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.
>ASK BIRD ABOUT NEW INTERACTIVE FICTION
"The ongoing development of interactive fiction works" (3.5)
The interactive fiction genre is by no means dead! There is ongoing,
high-quality development efforts taking place right now.
The majority of the public-domain and shareware efforts are in text
adventures, for a number of reasons: the production costs of text are
extremely low, compared to graphical, raytraced, and/or animated
offerings; the authoring tools for text are fairly sophisticated,
accessible, and next to (or precisely) free; and they can usually be
done in a much shorter time.
Games generally are developed around one of either TADS or Inform
development systems, a decision occasionally the subject of discussion
on rec.arts.int-fiction. As mentioned in part 2, Inform outputs
Z-code which can be played by a ZIP, many of which have source code;
TADS code is proprietary. The salient point of this to
rec.games.int-fiction readers is that TADS games have a possible
playing audience that is a subset of that possible with an Inform
game: modern TADS interpreters aren't available for the Amiga and
Acorn Archimedes, among others. For a genre supported by enthusiasts,
who are likely to own enthusiast-type computers like the Amiga and the
Acorn, this is significant.
Games like Legend, Curses, the Unnkulia Series, Enhanced, Shades of
Grey, Avalon, Christminster, and many more are available, whose
quality rivals that of games released in the Golden Age of text
adventures.
Commercial companies continue to produce adventure-type software;
products like Myst, The Seventh Guest, The 11th Hour, and Return To
Zork are the closest conceptually to IF of the past. Many don't
consider these to be real interactive fiction -- or, consider them
inferior IF works -- since the games don't offer the same richness in
details, variety in actions, or challenge in puzzles as is expected of
text IF today. As a point of note (but by no means policy),
Activision's graphical releases in the "Infocom Universe" like
Zork:Nemesis and Planetfall 2:The Search For Floyd are often discussed
on rec.games.int-fiction, and Myst and "other" graphical IF on the
relevant comp.sys.*.games newsgroups.
There is researching also being done in areas that could move
interactive fiction forward into several exciting new areas. The Oz
Project are Carnegie-Mellon University is researching areas such as
computer simulation of character emotional dynamics, realistic
interactions with the "universe" of the actor, and much more.
Pointers to the Oz project's home page are available as links
from almost any of the interactive fiction Web pages mentioned in
part 1 of this FAQ, or through any of the usual WWW search engines.
It's somewhere on http://www.cs.cmu.edu/. The webmaster there seems
fond of moving documents around, so a permanent URL would be useless.
Your lantern flickers slightly, brightens, then suddenly goes out!
>WEST
Oh, no! A lurking grue slithered into the room and devoured you!
**** You have died ****
Press any key to continue
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From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: rec.games.int-fiction FAQ part 2 - Infocom (+sorry re: part 1)
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[My apologies for the screwed-up copies of part 1; the one which begins
"West of house" is the correct part 1.]
A strange little man in a long cloak appears suddenly in the room. He is
wearing a high pointed hat embroidered with astrological signs. He has a
long, stringy, and unkempt beard.
The Wizard draws forth his wand and waves it in your direction. It begins
to glow with a faint blue glow. The Wizard, in a deep and resonant voice,
speaks the word "FAQ!" He cackles gleefully.
This is part 2 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
Contents of this file:
2.0 Infocom
2.1 Whatever happened to Infocom, anyway?
2.2 Can I reach any of the original Infocommies?
2.3 Classic Infocom titles available now
2.4 Classic Infocom releases you might find used somewhere
2.5 Modern (i.e. Activision) releases
2.6 Infocom products not (yet) re-released
2.7 Missing or hard-to-find information in LToI packaging
2.8 Z-machine interpreters, vocabulary listers, utilities,
and Specification numbers.
2.9 Infocom copyrights and playing on other platforms
2.10 Creating your own (Infocom) adventure games
Part 1 covers the elements of rec.games.int-fiction.
Part 3 covers non-Infocom game producers.
The current maintainer is Stephen Van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca.
The dream dissolves around you as his last words echo through the void....
>AIMFIZ FORD PREFECT
As you cast the spell, the moldy scroll vanishes!
After a momentary dizziness, you realize that your location has changed,
although Ford Prefect is not in sight...
Dark
You can make out a shadow moving in the dark.
>LOOK AT SHADOW
The shadow is vaguely Ford Prefect-shaped.
Vogon Hold
This is a squalid room filled with grubby mattresses, unwashed cups, and
unidentifiable bits of smelly alien underwear. A door lies to port, and an
airlock lies to starboard.
Ford removes the bottle of Santraginean Mineral Water which he's been
waving under your nose. He tells you that you are aboard a Vogon
spaceship, and gives you some peanuts.
>ASK FORD ABOUT INFOCOM
A long silence tells you that Ford Prefect isn't interested in talking
about Infocom.
Ford yawns. "Matter transference always tires me out. I'm going to take a
nap." He places something on top of his satchel. "If you have any
questions, here's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (Footnote 14).
Ford lowers his voice to a whisper. "I'm not supposed to tell you this,
but you'll never be able to finish the game without consulting the Guide
about lots of stuff." As he curls up in a corner and begins snoring, you
pick up the Guide.
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT INFOCOM
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
"Whatever happened to Infocom, anyway?" (2.1)
This info is taken from [what was once] the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
FAQ, with thanks to Infocom's Stu Galley for passing it along:
[Thanks to Dave Lebling (Infocom co-founder) for the definitive info
on this]
Infocom never went out of business. It went deeply into debt to
develop a database product (named Cornerstone) that was a commercial
flop. It went shopping for a merger and found Activision, which later
changed its name to Mediagenic. What did happen is that in May of
1989 Mediagenic closed down the "real" Infocom in Cambridge, MA, and
laid (almost) everyone off. All the releases up through Zork Zero,
Shogun, Journey, and Arthur were developed in Cambridge.
Mediagenic licensed the UK rights to the games to Virgin Mastertronic
about two years ago.
Mediagenic went nearly bankrupt, was taken over by outside investors,
and taken through a so-called "pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy" in
January, 1992. As part of that process, they changed their name back
to Activision, moved from Silicon Valley down to LA, and recently
merged with a company owned by the investors (called The Disc
Company).
Activision continues to release new products under the Infocom label,
all of which so far have been CD-ROM graphical adventures which have
been met with dour grunts of disapproval from rec.*.int-fiction denizens.
The original text adventures can still be purchased.
You begin to feel distinctly groggy.
> LOOK UNDER MATTRESS FOR IMPLEMENTOR
"Hey, anybody know how I can reach Steve Meretzky?" (2.2)
The original Infocom crew has moved on to other positions. Any kind of
"where are they now" would probably be wrong, out of date, and almost
certainly unwelcome. David Lebling has recently surfaced on
rec.*.int-fiction to comment from time to time, and so haz Liz Cyr
Jones. Other implementors may be lurking; nobody knows.
You see nothing else interesting.
> CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT CLASSIC INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.3)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
Classic Infocom is generally defined to be anything before Return to
Zork. Activision owns the rights to all the Infocom games and
trademarks, and occasionally releases them in some repackaged form or
another.
Activision is currently [footnote 42] selling a compilation of classic
Infocom called "Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces". This CD (which
works on PC or Mac) meets practically every wish of the
rec.games.int-fiction readership, except for wide availablility.
There is little Activision can do to force stores to carry their
product.
The CD includes the following games:
A Mind Forever Voyaging; Arthur: The Quest For Excalibur; Ballyhoo;
Border Zone; Bureaucracy; Cutthroat; Deadline; Enchanter;
Hollywood Hijinx; Infidel; Journey; Leather Goddesses Of Phobos;
Lurking Horror; Moonmist; Nord And Bert Couldn't Make Head Or Tail Of
It; Planetfall; Seastalker; Sherlock; Sorcerer; Spellbreaker;
Starcross; Stationfall; Suspect; Suspended; Trinity; Wishbringer;
Witness; Zork Zero; Zork I; Zork II; Zork III; Beyond Zork.
Notable by their absence are Hitch Hikers' and Shogun, which are
not included since the right to distribute those games has reverted
back to the original authors.
Also included is the top 6 winning entries from the 1995 Interactive
Fiction authorship competition, a "Very Lost Treasures of Infocom"
section containing old game ideas, statements of principle, and
e-mail archives from Infocom's heyday. All maps and documentation are
provided in Adobe Acrobat format which can be printed out.
The packaging bears little resemblance to the originals; notably absent
are the plastic or metal trinkets that were included in packages (for
example, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy included peril-sensitive
sunglasses, a "Don't Panic" button, a zip-lock baggie containing a
microscopic space fleet, and printed orders for the destruction of your
home and planet). Infocom's original packaging is legendary in the
software industry.
Cost: about $20 US, it has been seen in reasonable quantity at Best
Buy stores and should be at Babbages', Sofware Plus and others. It can
also be ordered direct from Activision (visit www.activision.com; they
will "shortly" be having online ordering but you can get their 1-800
number there).
If you are looking for pirated copies of classic products, don't bother
asking on this newsgroup. In fact, don't bother at all. Many of the
games rely on materials in the game package for copy protection, either
in the form of knowledge you would have by reading it, or data that you
need to look up.
Ford is curled up on the bed, snoring loudly.
> FOOTNOTE 42
"Previous Infocom compilations you still might find" (2.4)
Infocom, in its pre-Activision days released trilogies (The Zork
Trilogy, for example, or the Enchanter trilogy containing Enchanter,
Sorcerer and Wishbringer) containing a subset of the trinkets found in
the original packages. Like almost all other original Infocom packages,
these are now collectors' items.
Activision has released its own series of compilations:
"The Lost Treasures of Infocom I" is a collection of 20 Infocom games.
You may be able to obtain it through mail-order outlets or used from
someone who doesn't want it anymore. The package was available for the
IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga. The CD and
floppy editions were identical.
The games in LToI I were:
Zork I Enchanter Deadline Starcross
Zork II Sorcerer Witness Suspended
Zork III Spellbreaker Suspect Planetfall
Zork Zero Ballyhoo Infidel Stationfall
Beyond Zork Moonmist Lurking Horror Hitchhiker's Guide
The LToI 1 package was available for the Apple IIgs through the Big
Red Computer Club, which sought and received permission from
Activision to port the games to the IIgs.
The package includes a manual which contains photocopies of all the
original manuals and game pieces (such as the trading cards from
"Spellbreaker", which are needed to solve a puzzle in the game), but
some information is missing -- see section 2.7 below.
The package also contains a hint book, which looks like somebody took
all the Invisiclues booklets and typed them into a text file. The
hint book is riddled with spelling mistakes, formatting errors and
other problems, but in most cases the mistakes are not serious enough
to keep you from using it.
"Lost Treasures of Infocom II" contained most (but not all) of the
remaining Infocom text adventure games, and retailed for $29.95 through
retail and mail order outlets.
The games in the 3.5 disk version were:
Seastalker Wishbringer A Mind Forever Voyaging
Trinity Cutthroats Hollywood Hijinx
Bureaucracy Border Zone Plundered Hearts
Sherlock Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It
The CD-ROM version contained Shogun, Arthur and Journey in addition.
LToI2 was produced for the Macintosh and PC only. Users of other
platforms can play the non-graphical games by transferring the files
to their machine and playing them with a ZIP. (See question 2.9.)
This package contains photocopies of the original packaging, but does
NOT contain a hint book: Instead it contains a 1-900 number which you
can call to receive hints which is probably dead by now. Some
information is missing for Bueaucracy. See question 2.7.
After Lost Treasures, Infocom released its topical Collections. These
are considered inferior to just about every other collection:
Mystery Collection: Ballyhoo, Deadline, Witness, Moonmist, Sherlock
Adventure Collection: Border Zone, Plundered Hearts, Cutthroats,
Trinity, Infidel
Comedy Collection: Bureaucracy, Hollywood Hijinx, Nord & Bert
Fantasy Collection: Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Seastalker,
Wishbringer
Science Fiction Collection: Hitchhiker's, Suspended, AMFV, Starcross,
Stationfall
There is also the Zork Anthology, published by Activision in 1994 as a CD
companion to the pseudo-Infocom title "Return to Zork". It contains
Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, and oddly,
Planetfall.
You begin to feel indistinctly groggy.
> CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT ANCIENT COMPILATIONS (2.5)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
You begin to feel very indistinct.
>EAT PEANUTS
You feel stronger as the peanuts replace some of the protein you lost in
the matter transference beam.
An announcement is coming over the ship's intercom. "Ed tgrykonx jcavfluu
nx jchotha otoyefti ltruvupirbi swrotrueft ochoollzitchogrya rd tfudeftd t
ow ctrufudx jp wkonvuphuvd te h oulpkonz zollcava ri li lo ti l oe hfudx
jirbtrugrys gvupp work oo sthaquio ta btoyr gkonr ga r or gz zr gi skwazitz
zkwaa rerl ow cfluirbwroorktoyfimthad tulp oe he hfluo simbchogryr gu ni
s."
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT RECENT INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.5)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
Activision is working to build a following for Infocom's universes
based on the modern trend to humongous games sprawling across hundreds
of megabytes. Their offerings to date:
_Return to Zork_
A mid-1993 entry for the IBM PC, set far in the "future" of the Zork
series. Difficult, hunt-the-pixels, graphical interface. A
Macintosh version was released in mid-1994. PC Demo is available.
_Zork: Nemesis_
A graphical CD-ROM adventure released in 1995. The interface has
improved somewhat; the game includes amusing references to the Zork
universe, but the plot is said to be irregular and the puzzles
somewhat inconsistent. Said to be a huge improvement over RTZ.
_Planetfall: The Search for Floyd_
Due out in 1995, a graphical adventure written by Steve Meretzky,
Richard Manning and Hans Beimler. Infocom has reportedly learned
their lesson with Return to Zork's interface and will be improving
it considerably for their 1995 games.
There is also another Zork adventure coming perhaps early next year.
>CONSULT GUIDE ABOUT OTHER INFOCOM PRODUCTS (2.6)
The Guide checks through its Sub-Etha-Net database and eventually comes up
with the following entry:
There are a handful of games and other Infocom products that are not
included in any of the compilations. These products range from
hard-to-find early Infocom products to non-IF games made by other
companies and marketed under the Infocom brand name.
For more information about Infocom products, version numbers and
Infocom products that were never released, see Paul David's Doherty's
"Infocom Fact Sheet", which is periodically posted on
rec.games.int-fiction and is also avaialable at
.
Hard-to-find and early products:
_The Infocom Sampler_ (pre-1984?)
This was the first of three demo products written by Infocom,
containing (we think) excerpts from Zork I. The existence of this
sampler is deduced mainly because a later version of the Sampler has
serial number "ID2", suggesting an earlier "ID1".
_The Infocom Sampler_ (1984, 1985)
This was the second of three samplers, containing excerpts from Zork
I, Planetfall, Infidel and The Witness, and also containing a unique
two-room puzzle that involved catching a butterfly. Available for
virtually every computer on the market in 1985 (including the Osborne,
Kaypro II, TRS-80 Color Computer, etc.) Superseded in 1987 by the
third and final Infocom Sampler.
_The Infocom Sampler_ (Fall 1987)
Third and final sampler containing puzzles from Zork I, Trinity,
Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Wishbringer. IBM PC, Apple II and
Commodore 64.
_Fooblitzky_ (Summer 1985)
A graphical game involving deductive logic, by Marc Blank, Michael
Berlyn, Brian Cody, Poh C. Lim and Paula Maxwell. IBM PC, Apple II,
Atari XL/XE series.
_Shogun_
_Journey_
_Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur_
Versions for the Apple IIe and Amiga were produced, but are now rare.
IBM and Mac versions are on LToI 2 CD-ROMs as well as Masterpieces.
_Leather Goddesses of Phobos_ (Summer 1986)
Activision chose not to include the original LGoP in either of the
Lost Treasures packages, possibly to prevent confusion with the
inferior sequel (see below) that was published at about the same time.
A coupon in the LToI II package offered the IBM PC version of this
game for an additional $10; versions for other machines, including the
Apple II, Macintosh, Atari and Amiga, are difficult to obtain.
_Leather Goddesses of Phobos II: Gas Pump Girls Meet the
Pulsating Inconvenience from Planet X_
This 1992 offering from "Infocom" had more in common with Leisure
Suit Larry than with the original Leather Goddesses. Available for the
IBM PC.
_The New Zork Times_ / _The Status Line_ (1983? - 1988)
The legendary Infocom newsletter. The name was changed in mid-1986
due to threatened legal action by a lesser-known newspaper serving a
smaller area (Infocom promptly began using old newspapers for packing
material when shipping games to their customers; by coincidence the NYT
was the paper of choice for this purpose). Thirteen issues were
published under the name 'NZT'; one issue (Spring 1986) was titled
'****' and the remaining ten were published as 'TSL'. The newsletters
are now collector's items, and a complete set is rare. Some articles
are archived at
and at
There is an effort underway on rec.games.int-fiction to create
complete electronic editions of these newsletters. Watch this space
for more information.
_Cornerstone_ (Fall 1984)
Infocom's one and only attempt at a commercial business product (see
section 2.1, above); probably of interest only to purists. IBM PC
version only; description in Winter 1985 NZT.
Non-Infocom "Infocom" offerings:
_Infocomics_ (1988)
Many believe that this is the point where Infocom-as-a-publisher ended
and Infocom-as-a-brand-name-for-lesser-products began. IBM PC, Apple
II, Commodore 64/128. At least four of these $12 'comic books' were
published:
Lane Mastodon vs. The Blubbermen
Gamma Force in Pit of a Thousand Screams
ZorkQuest I: Assault on Egreth Castle
ZorkQuest II: The Crystal of Doom
_Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth_ (Fall 1988)
Activision purchased the rights to this Macintosh game from Simulated
Environment Systems in late 1988, and reworked the text and user
interface. The game is a graphical RPG similar to a number of D&D-type
games on the market. Infocom planned to release this game for the
Apple IIgs and IBM, but only the Macintosh version was ever
published.
_BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception_ (Fall 1988)
Activision now sells this game and its sequel (_BattleTech: The
Crescent Hawk's Revenge_) as part of a three-game package of
BattleTech-related games. Developed by Westwood Associates.
"Available in November [1988] for the IBM, in February [1989] for the
Commodore 64/128, and in [Spring 1989] for the Apple II series and the
Amiga." The IBM, Amiga and Commodore 64 versions have been sighted;
the status of the Apple II version is unknown.
_Simon The Sorcerer_
Infocom was used as the label for IBM and Mac distribution for this
Sierra-style graphical adventure. Amiga distribution was by Adventure
Soft.
_Circuit's Edge_
IBM, Amiga, and "other 8-bit platforms". A science-fiction RPG based
on Effinger's world in the story "When Gravity Fails".
_Mines of Titan_
IBM, Amiga, Apple IIe and "other 8-bit platforms". A science-fiction
RPG set on the moon Titan. Originally released as _The Mars Saga_ on
the 64. Written by Westwood Associates.
Guards burst in and grab you and Ford, who comes slowly awake. They drag
you down the corridor to a large cabin, where they strap you into large,
menacing chairs...
Captain's Quarters, in the poetry appreciation chair
This is the cabin of the Vogon Captain. You and Ford are strapped into
poetry appreciation chairs. The Captain is indescribably hideous,
indescribably blubbery, and indescribably mid-to-dark green. He is holding
samples of his favourite poetry.
>ASK THE CAPTAIN ABOUT MISSING GAME PIECES (2.7)
One of the guards lightly bashes your skull with the butt of his weapon
and says (Ford translates for you):
Here is a list of missing or hard-to-find info in the Lost Treasures
game packages. All have been typed in and are available at the ftp site
in the directory infocom/shipped-documentation.
_Ballyhoo_
The original packaging included an advertisement for a radio station,
WPDL AM at 1170 KHz. You will need to tune the radio to this
frequency (or TUNE RADIO TO WPDL) to get a vital clue.
_Lurking Horror_
Your Login ID, an important part of one of the early puzzles, is
*not* missing from the LToI manual. It's just hard to find. (Hint:
It's written somewhere on your Student ID Card.)
_Bureaucracy_
Some important information from the Popular Paranoia advertisement is
missing, as well as the Beezer card application in triplicate is
absent from the LToI 2 package.
_Moonmist_
Your friend Tamara will make frequent references to the letters she
wrote asking for your help; unfortunately, these letters are not
included in the LToI package. The full text of these two letters is
available from the ftp.gmd.de archive, with many thanks to Mark Howell
for typing in these letters from the original package.
_Zork Zero_
The original documentation for Zork Zero contained information about
the game's on-screen mapping, which may be activated by typing in the
command "MAP" at any time during the game. No mention is made of this
in LToI 1.
Also, some versions of the LToI package may be missing a (vital) map
of the "Rockville Estates" section of the game. The map is a
blueprint of a construction site ("Frobozz Magic Construction
Company") showing an 8 x 8 grid of octagonal rooms connected by lines
representing passages. You cannot win the game without the
information on this map.
Some copies of the LToI manual include this map on a page that is
apparently numbered "40b" (the preceding page is "40a", and the next
page is 41 -- the page with the map is not numbered), suggesting that
the map was inserted after the first printing. Early IBM versions of
the LToI manual include the map on page 2 of the Zork I instructions.
If your copy of the manual is missing page 40b, and you cannot find
the map anywhere else in the game package, call Activision technical
support at 310-207-4500 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm PST) and explain the
situation to them. They should provide you with a replacement map.
If all else fails, the ASCII drawing on the next page is a rough but
accurate rendering of the "Rockville Estates" blueprint for Infocom's
Zork Zero. This map is provided for use by legitimate owners of the
Lost Treasures of Infocom package only.
0 1 2 3 4 5.... 6.... 7 Goobar -
.' .' .' I left my hardhat
8 9 10 11 12....13 14 15 out in lot 0.
: .' .' Please pick it up
16 17 18 19 20 21 22....23 Thanks,
`. .' .' .' Quizbo
24 25 26....27 28 29 30....31
: .' .' :
32 33 34....35 36 37 38....39
: .' .' : .' To
40 41 42....43 44....45 46 47....GUH-95
: `. .' : .' `. .' .'
48 49 50 51....52 53 54 55
`. : `. : `.
56....57....58 59 60 61....62....63
._____________________________
Work still to be performed in Phase Two: |Frobozz Magic Construction Co
* Removal of temporary passages | ROCKVILLE ESTATES
* Installation of emergency exits | Phase Two, showing all work
* Installation of sprinkler system | completed through 29-Mum-880
* Construction of Concierge apartment | 1:440 | drawn by S. Fzortbar
The Vogon Captain says, "Ofudgrythafudo tw cchoe ho tz z ocavtrup wwroz zl
mfluz ztruqui." A guard grabs you and Ford, and drags you toward the hold.
Ford whispers, "Don't worry, I'll think of something!"
Vogon Hold
In the corner is a glass case with a switch and a keyboard.
It looks like the glass case contains:
an atomic vector plotter
Ford begins trying to talk the guard into a sudden career change.
>TYPE "HELLO"
The hold of the Vogon ship is virtually undamaged by the explosion of the
glass case. You, however, are blasted into tiny bits and smeared all over
the room. Several cleaning robots fly in and wipe you neatly off the
walls.
**** You have died ****
Your guardian angel, draped in white, appears floating in the nothingness
before you. "Gotten in a bit of a scrape, eh?" he asks, writing
frantically in a notebook. "I'd love to chat, but we're so busy this
month." The angel twitches his nose, and the nothingness is replaced by...
Darkness
It is pitch black. You could be eaten by a zmachine.
>WHAT IS A ZMACHINE? (2.8)
A zmachine or ZIP (Z-machine Interpreter Program) is a program that
interprets and runs Infocom game data files. Infocom used a
way-ahead-of-their-time implementation scheme that allowed them to
develop one game that would run on any of 26 different computers,
using a ZIP program specific to that computer and a data file common
to all machines.
The Z-machine specification underwent several extensions at Infocom.
The first two versions are obscure and you aren't very likely to
encounter them. Version 3 ("Standard") is the format for the majority
of the files in the Lost Treasures of Infocom series. Version 4
("Plus") was a brief experiment that quickly lead to version 5
("Advanced"), a size suitable for creating fairly large adventures of
the magnitude of Curses or Trinity (about 256K). Version 6
("Graphical") has recently been deciphered and can handle story files
about twice as large as version 5.
Until version 6 arrived, all the Z-machines were text-only. Version
6 added some graphics primitives and is the format used in Arthur,
Journey, Shogun, and Zork Zero.
With the release of Inform 5.5, the public-domain compiler for
Infocom format files (see below), Graham Nelson has proposed two new
versions (7 and 8), the first non-Infocom "extensions" to the
standard. Version 8 is identical to version 5 but with twice the
storage (512K). Version 7 has not yet been used in any released game.
Mark Howell, author of Zip, has made available "ztools", a collection
of C source files for dumping vocabulary, version, font, graphic and
other information from Infocom games, for converting IBM bootable
disks into story files, and for disassembly of story files to Z-code
assembly language. There are also numerous other "tool" programs for
Infocom files available by other authors for other platforms.
As a point of history, Infocom generated their Z-code files by
compiling the Zork Implementation Language (ZIL) with a compiler named
ZILCH. ZIL is a dialect of a Lisp-like language called MDL. MDL is
ancient history, and ZIL seems to have disappeared entirely, though some
code fragments can be found in back issues of the New Zork Times.
The ftp site has a considerable collection of Z-machine interpreters.
Frotz is the most accurate implementation, but other interpreters may
have more bells and whistles for your particular platform.
They are at .
Gareth Rees maintains a mini-FAQ with information on which
interpreters are recommended for which platforms, and what to do if
you can't find an interpreter for your computer.
There are some other ZIP programs at GMD that are not listed in
Gareth's mini-FAQ. They range in quality, but some are fairly
portable and have interesting source code.
_zmachine_ by Matthias Pfaller
Current version: 2.24
Plays most Z-Code v3 games (except games with sound).
Supports UNIX termcap, MS-DOS, Amiga and Atari ST systems.
Supports sound on the Amiga only.
_pinfocom_ by Paul D. Smith
Current version: 3.0
Plays all Z-Code versions to v5. Includes features to print
vocabulary lists, object trees, and header info for all Z-Code
versions. Supports UNIX termcap and terminfo, MS-DOS, and Amiga
systems. Basically does everything ITF 4.01 does and more
(command-line restore, enhanced command-line editing commands,
stellar Amiga interface, etc.).
_zterp_ by Charles Hannum
Current version: 0.3 alpha
A bare-bones v3 interpreter with source.
You may notice increasing discussion about a particular interpreter
being Specification compliant, where is some number like 1.0.
The "specification" is a document by Graham Nelson, based on earlier
work by the InfoTaskForce, which describes rigorously how a Z-Machine
is supposed to behave. An interpreter is said to be Specification-
compliant when it conforms to this document. Frotz is the only
interpreter compliant with the specification available at the moment.
Some games may eventually require your interpreter adhere to a particular
Speficiation version, especially as the Specfication is extended over
time.
>NE
Oh, no! A lurking Z-machine slithered into the room and devoured you!
**** You have died ****
Now, let's take a look here... Well, you probably deserve another chance.
I can't quite fix you up completely, but you can't have everything.
Potting Room
This light room is full of pot plants, flowers, seeds, ornamental trowels
and other miscellaneous garden implements.
A pair of yellow rubber gloves hangs from a hook on one wall.
Aunt Jemima, who has for years collected varieties of daisy, is engaged in
her regular annual pastime of deciding which species make the best chains.
>ASK JEMIMA ABOUT COPYRIGHTS
Jemima screeches with irritation.
"Copyrights on Infocom products / using other platforms" (2.9)
Since Activision bought Infocom, Activision now owns the copyrights
and trademarks on Infocom's products.
This means it's illegal to have a copy of any Infocom product you
didn't pay for. This may make owners of non-PC, non-Mac computers
despair since the only products shipping are for those two platforms,
but there are options available. You can purchase one of the
anthologies listed above, transfer the data files to your computer
somehow, and use one of the available interpreters to run it. This is
the inherent beauty of Infocom's Z-machine idea. See question 2.8 for
information on interpreters.
Your interpreter should support at least v3 files. Some of the
larger games (Trinity) are version 4 or 5. Zork Zero, Arthur, Journey
and Shogun are v6 games, for which no interpreter is available.
There probably will never be one, since v6 games incorporate lots of
graphics which make them difficult to port to other operating
systems.
There probably isn't a legal problem with doing this. Of course, if you
sell your package, you should destroy the copies you've made.
Copyright issues with respect to samplers, invisiclues, New Zork
Times issues, and other things which Activision, in practice, will
never want to redistribute, have not been resolved.
Activision can be reached at:
Activision/Infocom
P.O. Box 67001
Los Angeles, CA, USA 90067
Order line: 800-477-3650 (US) [anybody have one for Europe?]
Tech support: 310-207-4500 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm PST)
People have had mixed and inconsistent results with Activision. Many
have been told that the Lost Treasures aren't shipping anymore but
after calling back and getting a different operator they were able to
order one. This may have changed with the appearance of the 5 new
collections.
>E.E.S.E.LIE DOWN.SLEEP.
You sleep unexpectedly deeply, but just as you think you are starting to
wake up, you experience a sudden...
Premonition
It is a frosty, clear night, but there is a scent of camp-fires burning in
the distance. You are passing through the landscape as if a ghost, and
all seems faintly unreal. To the east is one side of an animal-hide tent,
but there is no way in from here. To southwest, some soldiers sit around
the embers of a fire. There is a terrible sense of something about to
happen.
>SW
Camp Fire
A motley platoon of soldiers are sitting about the embers of a fire.
>LISTEN
"Creating your own adventure games" (2.10)
Since this part of the FAQ is Infocom-oriented I will tell you that
there is a freely distributable compiler available called Inform which
allows you to generate Infocom-format story files that can be played
with any Z-machine interpreter.
The Inform language and libraries are excellent. They were modelled
based on the requirements for a Zork I-style game and provide the means
to modify the parser, manage timers and daemons, change personalities
and much more. It has C-ish syntax. This system does require a
certain degree of programming knowledge. The documentation (in
3 parts) is pretty good; the 220-page Designers' Manual should be read
even if you don't want to use Inform in favour of a different system,
as it provides an interesting insight into what goes into developing
a game.
There are many other IF development systems available, and some
background and information on them will appear in the next section.
For the best information on the subject, visit rec.arts.int-fiction
and read its FAQ.
>NE. E. N. TAKE IRON MASCOT
The Druid catches sight of your ghostly hand taking the mascot, and
immediately begins her occultations, cursing you and your ill-gotten
gains. But she is unable to make contact with you, and turns furiously to
the tapestry, hissing "lagach" to the Bear. At once a sudden swirl of wind
seems to pull her into the rough cloth, dissolving her to nothing.
You wake up, shivering with dread.
>WAIT
Something feels very wrong indeed. Your hand begins to burn.
In an astonishing freak accident, a meteorite hurtles through the Earth's
atmosphere and then straight through your head. Anyone would think you
had a curse on you (anyone, that is, still able to think).
*** You have died ***
Press any key to continue.
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From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: rec.games.int-fiction FAQ part 3 - Other companies + New Development
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
Message-ID:
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 17:46:01 GMT
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[This section is unsatisfying to me. I would love to talk about Legend
Entertainment, but I don't know anything about them. Can someone help?]
Now, let's take a look here... Well, you probably deserve another chance.
I can't quite fi-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
This is part 3 of the Frequently Asked Questions list for the group
rec.games.int-fiction, a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of
Interactive Fiction games and related topics. To read a specific
question, use your newsreader's search function on the string "(n)",
where n is the question number.
Contents of this file:
3.0 Companies and systems that aren't Infocom
3.1 About other companies
3.2 Level 9 and its games
3.3 The Level 9 FTP site
3.3 Adventure Software Inc. and its games
3.4 The ongoing development of Interactive Fiction
Part 1 covers the elements of rec.games.int-fiction.
Part 2 covers Infocom.
The current maintainer is Stephen van Egmond. Questions and
information should be mailed to svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca.
You are in an amphitheater. The sound of the crowd comes from all
around. There is a gladiator here, holding a weapon and advancing
toward you. The gladiator says:
"Infocom wasn't the only adventure game company, you know" (3.1)
There were 2 other companies dedicated to the production of interactive
fiction games: Level 9 and Adventure International ("Scott Adams
adventures"). In reality, there were much more than two, but these two
seem to have a noticeable following on rec.games.int-fiction. If you
have a personal favourite, ask about it, and someone will probably know.
Level 9 was formed by three brothers in 1982. Their first product was
a port of Adventure to the 8-bit computers that dominated the English
market at the time. Until their shutdown in 1991, they produced over a
dozen adventure games for these machines, the 32K BBC family, and the
Sinclair Spectrum 48K.
Level 9 used a high degree of compression: a typical game of 210
locations, 70 objects, and lots of text could fit into 32K. The
adventure engine had 5 major versions:
. Basic Text: black on white with noun/verb parser
. Advanced Text: yellow on black with faster display
. Basic Graphics: simple line drawings for each location, at a cost
to the amount of text in the game
. Advanced Graphics: dramatically improved parser and the usual
amount of text.
. Interactive Characters: grid-like maps, digitized graphics, and
improved parser with interactive,
independent characters.
Each game was available in three versions for the Sinclair Spectrum:
48K all-text, 48K graphics with reduced text, and 128K graphics with
full text, multiple UNDO and save/restore in RAM.
Adventure International is a company founded by Scott Adams, whose games
used a datafile and interpreter system similar to that of Infocom.
There is a freely distributable interpreter, Scottfree, on ftp.gmd.de.
There were interpreters released for a large number of 8-bit machines,
like the TRS-80, Apple II, Atari 400/800, and Commodore's 8-bit lineup.
The adventures were written using a noun/verb parser, but are considered
to have exciting story lines. I still remember playing the cartridge
version of "Impossible Mission" on my friend's VIC-20.
The gladiator advances menacingly.
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT LEVEL 9 (3.2)
Level 9's games were usually released in triolgies, some more
interrelated than others:
Colossal Adventure, similar to Crowther and Woods'
Adventure Quest, defeat the evil lord with the magic foob
Dungeon Adventure, loot the dead lord's tower, solving the many puzzles
The above three were packaged into a Middle Earth Trilogy (renamed by
the lawyers to Colossal Trilogy). Later, a second Trilogy, this time
with graphics, a nicer parser and some text tweaks, named the Jewels of
Darkness appeared.
Snowball, save the starship from terrorists
Return to Eden, the starship lands and you must find your colony
Worm in Paradise, your colony is now politically corrupt and Orwellian
The above three were packaged into the Silicon Dream Trilogy.
Lords of Time, prance through time to get the artifacts and save us all
Red Moon, Level 9's version of Enchanter
The Price of Magic, a gothic horror -- defeat a corrupted sorcerer;
a follow-on to Red Moon
Time Into Magic is a trilogy of Lords of Time, Red Moon, and The Price
of Magic.
The following games don't appear in any "trilogy":
Emerald Isle, graphical game where you're stranded on an island
Eric the Viking, a which-way type of adventure
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, another choose-your-own-path adventure
Knight Orc, a 16-bit game merging the Silicon Dream Trilogy and The
Jewels of Darkness.
Gnome Ranger, help your female gnome Ingrid find her way home.
Lancelot, a game closely based on the myths presented in "The Once and
Future King".
Gnome Ranger II: Ingrid's Back, where Ingrid must save the village
hall from being bulldozed.
Scape Ghost, where a police officer killed while on duty gets revenge
and saves another officer.
The gladiator advances menacingly!
>SHOW SPECTRUM TO GLADIATOR
"Would you like to get some Level 9 games for that?" (3.3)
There is an ftp archive of many of the games that were released by
Level 9. The ftp site only allows a limited number of connections,
and since it's in Slovenia, it's probably slow. Please try to use it
at night. The games are in the format of the ZX Spectrum; you will
probably not find one these days. PC owners can use the ZX emulator
that is there.
The remaining games are available under the snapshots directory;
the filenames (e.g. "adquest128k.zip") should adequately explain
which games are which, and for what size of machine they are intended.
The gladiator's weapon swishes through the air, narrowly missing you!
>ASK THE GLADIATOR ABOUT SCOTT ADAMS (3.4)
"Mr. Adams was never in the business of writing the Scott Adams adventure
games."
- _The Dilbert FAQ_ by Dogbert
Adventure International released several lines of games using the same
datafile format and various interpreter revisions.
The Scott Adams Classic Adventure Series:
Adventure Land: Ordinary treasure hunting.
Pirate Adventure / Pirate's Cove: Search an island.
Mission Impossible / Secret Mission / Impossible Mission: Stop the
reactor from going kaboom.
There was also Vodoo Castle, The Count, Strange Odyssey, Fun House
Mystery, Pyramid of Doom, Ghost Town, Savage Island parts 1 and 2,
Golden Voyage, Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle, and Adventures of
Buckaroo Bonzai.
Questprobe Series: The adventures in this series feature characters
from Marvel Comics.
The Hulk, Spiderman, and Fantastic Four. The latter used a different
adventure engine to allow control of two different characters.
There was a separate line of games sold by Adventure International using
a different datafile format: Curse of Crowley Manor, Escape from Traam,
San Francisco 1906, and Saigon: The Final Days.
Other games include Labyrinth of Crete, Return to Pirate's Island, Stone
of Sisyphus, and Morton's fork.
In the UK, there were many companies related to Adventure International,
such as Horrorsoft, Tynesoft, Adventure Soft UK, and Adventure
International UK. More information can be found in Adventure Game
History, by Hans Persson, from whose work all of the above comes.
The gladiator swings his sword, remo-
You go dizzy for a few seconds
then your head clears again.
Darkness
It is pitch dark, and you can't see a thing.
>LIGHT
What do you want to light?
>LANTERN
You switch the brass lantern on.
In Debris Room
You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface. A
low wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris here, but
an awkward canyon leads upward and west.
A note on the wall says, "Magic word XYZZY."
A three foot black rod with a rusty star on one end lies nearby.
A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.
>ASK BIRD ABOUT NEW INTERACTIVE FICTION
"The ongoing development of interactive fiction works" (3.5)
The interactive fiction genre is by no means dead! There is ongoing,
high-quality development efforts taking place right now.
The majority of the public-domain and shareware efforts are in text
adventures, for a number of reasons: the production costs of text are
extremely low, compared to graphical, raytraced, and/or animated
offerings; the authoring tools for text are fairly sophisticated,
accessible, and next to (or precisely) free; and they can usually be
done in a much shorter time.
Games generally are developed around one of either TADS or Inform
development systems, a decision occasionally the subject of discussion
on rec.arts.int-fiction. As mentioned in part 2, Inform outputs
Z-code which can be played by a ZIP, many of which have source code;
TADS code is proprietary. The salient point of this to
rec.games.int-fiction readers is that TADS games have a possible
playing audience that is a subset of that possible with an Inform
game: modern TADS interpreters aren't available for the Amiga and
Acorn Archimedes, among others. For a genre supported by enthusiasts,
who are likely to own enthusiast-type computers like the Amiga and the
Acorn, this is significant.
Games like Legend, Curses, the Unnkulia Series, Enhanced, Shades of
Grey, Avalon, Christminster, and many more are available, whose
quality rivals that of games released in the Golden Age of text
adventures.
Commercial companies continue to produce adventure-type software;
products like Myst, The Seventh Guest, The 11th Hour, and Return To
Zork are the closest conceptually to IF of the past. Many don't
consider these to be real interactive fiction -- or, consider them
inferior IF works -- since the games don't offer the same richness in
details, variety in actions, or challenge in puzzles as is expected of
text IF today. As a point of note (but by no means policy),
Activision's graphical releases in the "Infocom Universe" like
Zork:Nemesis and Planetfall 2:The Search For Floyd are often discussed
on rec.games.int-fiction, and Myst and "other" graphical IF on the
relevant comp.sys.*.games newsgroups.
There is researching also being done in areas that could move
interactive fiction forward into several exciting new areas. The Oz
Project are Carnegie-Mellon University is researching areas such as
computer simulation of character emotional dynamics, realistic
interactions with the "universe" of the actor, and much more.
Pointers to the Oz project's home page are available as links
from almost any of the interactive fiction Web pages mentioned in
part 1 of this FAQ, or through any of the usual WWW search engines.
It's somewhere on http://www.cs.cmu.edu/. The webmaster there seems
fond of moving documents around, so a permanent URL would be useless.
Your lantern flickers slightly, brightens, then suddenly goes out!
>WEST
Oh, no! A lurking grue slithered into the room and devoured you!
**** You have died ****
Press any key to continue
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From: lobo@best.com (Etienne Pelaprat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: NO MORE BETA TESTERS PLEASE
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 21:29:49 -0800
Organization: Pagemasters Unlimited
Lines: 12
Message-ID:
NNTP-Posting-Host: lobo.vip.best.com
We have reached the limit for beta testers for Spy-X. Sorry for those who
might still want to test. If some beta testers need to stop during the
testing, then I'll post another message.
Thanks,
Etienne
--
Etienne Pelaprat
http://www.best.com/~lobo/index.html
lobo@best.com
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From: emcmanus@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu (Edward Joseph Mc Manus)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces
Message-ID: <4sqv46$s9j@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: 20 Jul 96 15:48:22 GMT
References: <4soipt$iv2@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> <4sol2l$mke@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM> <4spnh4$kaf@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
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NNTP-Posting-User: emcmanus
In article , Andrew C. Plotkin
wrote:
>emcmanus@ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu (Edward Joseph Mc Manus) writes:
>[A lot of vitriolic insinuation.]
...
>Furthermore, your accusation is absurd in three different ways I can
>think of.
Of course it's absurd. The whole situation is absurd, which is precisely
why it's frustrating.
(Given my recent experiences, if I ever succeed in acquiring the
Masterpieces disc, it will be quite some time before I can bring myself to
play Bureaucracy.)
And Whizzard is correct; had Mitch Lasky's post confirming Masterpieces
shipping arrived at my site in time last night, I likely wouldn't have
posted my own piece.
I've written privately to Mitch to see if he can shed light on why the
product is not reaching Software Etc stores which have indeed ordered it.
If he can help, I will praise him publicly here. If not, I'll keep mum.
- Ted
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ted McManus emcmanus@indiana.edu
Indiana University, if aware of my opinions, would likely oppose them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: jholder@frii.com (John Holder)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: 28 Jul 1996 23:54:01 GMT
Organization: Front Range Internet, Inc.
Lines: 7
Message-ID: <4tguip$72@europa.frii.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: deimos.frii.com
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
This week's charts are out! So Far, by Andrew Plotkin, has hit
#4 on the games chart, and Jigsaw just hit #14! This is great!
--
John Holder (jholder@frii.com) http://www.frii.com/~jholder/
UNIX Specialist, Paranet Inc., Denver, Colorado, USA, Earth
Death is just God's way of dropping carrier detect...
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From: iamkam@aol.com (IamKam)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Help needed with Ditch Day Drifter
Date: 28 Jul 1996 20:42:57 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Lines: 6
Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com
Message-ID: <4th1eh$85q@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
Reply-To: iamkam@aol.com (IamKam)
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Can someone tell me how to get my items out of the tunnels that I need to
open the stack? I have 3 but can't get past the tight squeeze with them.
Also how do I get the battery? I don't have 5 bucks. And what am I
supposed to do with the spaceship? Please E-MAIL!
IamKam
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From: nkg@vcn.bc.ca (Neil K. Guy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: 29 Jul 1996 08:19:37 GMT
Organization: Vancouver CommunityNet
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <4ths6p$3bf@milo.vcn.bc.ca>
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Andrew C. Plotkin (erkyrath+@CMU.EDU) wrote:
: PS: Spotted Masterpieces in a Borders in DC. Very pleased to discover
: that they *did* correctly create MaxZip stand-alones for the
: competition games. I wonder if they noticed that you can unbundle the
: interpreter and run it on all their game files? I wonder how many
: non-RGIF customers will notice this? :-)
The version of MaxZip I have makes a snide remark about Activision in
the about box. Is that still there? :)
- Neil K. Guy
--
Neil K. Guy * nkg@vcn.bc.ca * nkg@tela.bc.ca
49N 16' 123W 7' * Vancouver, BC, Canada
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From: mcardle@ozemail.com.au (Edward McArdle)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Playing AGT games on a Mac
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 21:32:50 +1100
Organization: Retired layabouts
Lines: 13
Message-ID:
References: <4t32i2$cs4@omega.gmd.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.22.156.24
In article , owls@best.com (J. I.
Drasner) wrote:
> Pardon my extreme ignorance, but I'm lost in a flood of FAQs. Can anyone
> explain whether, and if so how, a Mac user might play an AGT game? (I
> think I remember trying to use the system once to write a game, but it
> kept crashing my machine on a regular basis.)
>
I haven't used my AGT RUN and COMPILE recently, but I seem to remember I
had to give it lots more memory for it not to crash.
--
Edward McArdle.
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From: mmartin@seanet.com (Michael C. Martin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces
Message-ID: <31F13509.6D77@seanet.com>
Date: 20 Jul 96 19:35:37 GMT
References: <4soipt$iv2@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> <4sol2l$mke@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM>
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Organization: Seanet Online Services, Seattle WA
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Matthew Daly wrote:
>
> I have had similar problems. Last week, Software Etc. told me that it
> would be in Saturday (on Wednesday), and then moved it up to Monday and
> then to "tomorrow". I got sick of their estimates, so I went to Babbages
> Tuesday of this week. The guy told me that it was supposed to be coming
> in that night (although they never got anything Tuesday nights), and on
> Thursday when I went back they said that it would be "any day now."
Babbages and Software Etc. are owned by the same company...they are just
one
store with 2 different names...
Mike
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From: mmartin@seanet.com (Michael C. Martin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces Direct Sales
Message-ID: <31F136D5.67E7@seanet.com>
Date: 20 Jul 96 19:43:17 GMT
References: <4sn80o$gca@usenet11.interramp.com>
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Mitch Lasky wrote:
>
> As of 7/18, the Infocom Masterpieces collection is available from
> Activision's direct sales line: (800) 477-3650.
>
> Just in case, I'm posting the inventory numbers to help make sure the
> operators sell the correct disk.
>
> Item ID: 0300Y2 CDD-3640
^^
Tip of the hat to Colossal Cave, or just a coincidence?
Mike
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From: jholder@frii.com (John Holder)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: WTB: Stationfall
Date: 28 Jul 1996 23:44:14 GMT
Organization: Front Range Internet, Inc.
Lines: 21
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <4tgu0e$72@europa.frii.com>
References: <31F508A1.7860@activision.com> <4t84ld$8bg@tom.amherst.edu> <4t8agk$3np@agate.berkeley.edu> <31f7d308.1552457@news.uni-linz.ac.at> <4t8sov$o6e@joker.rz.hu-berlin.de>
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Paul David Doherty (h0142kdd@joker.rz.hu-berlin.de) wrote:
: I think the problem (at least for some people around here) is that
: Activision killed Infocom. It wasn't Cornerstone, it wasn't Shogun
: or Journey, it was Activision that killed them off. And that's
: something some of us have great problems to forgive and forget...
And then, activision reorganized and formed a parent company,
Mediagenic, that was the parent company of Activision and
Infocom. Mediagenic nearly went bankrupt, and had a merger
with The Disc Company. Later, the Disc Company changed
their name back to Activision, the Activision of today.
While they still hold right to all the old Infocom and
Activision games, they are hardly the same company after all
that. Cut Activision a break.
John
--
John Holder (jholder@frii.com) http://www.frii.com/~jholder/
UNIX Specialist, Paranet Inc., Denver, Colorado, USA, Earth
Death is just God's way of dropping carrier detect...
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From: ahk@gas.uug.arizona.edu (Santiago)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Chart News: So Far #4, Shelby #31
Date: 29 Jul 1996 01:04:36 GMT
Organization: The World Charts
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <4th2n4$ks8@news.ccit.arizona.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: ahk
So Far by Andrew Plotkin rose to #4 on the Download Top 40 Games
this week. So Far is probably the first interactive fiction game to reach
the Top 10. Jigsaw by Graham Nelson rose to #14 from #34 and The Light:
Shelby's Addendum returned to the charts at #31.
Thousands of game players vote every week to determine the
Download Top 40 Games and the Commercial Top 100 Games. Everyone is
welcome to vote! Voting on the Games Charts has become fairly simple. We
have an automated voting booth at:
http://www.gatech.edu/dgal/pcgames
Santiago's Download Top 40 Games Page is the World Charts official
Download Top 40 Games site. I maintain links to ftp sites devoted to all
the Interactive Fiction games on the Download Top 40 Charts. Looking for
the best games? Go to my page:
http://gas.uug.arizona.edu/~ahk
-- Santiago (a.k.a. Arthur Kerschen)
ahk@gas.uug.arizona.edu
Editor, World Charts Download Top 40 Games
http://www.tiac.net/users/top100/pcgames.html
Manager, Santiago's Download Top 40 Page
http://gas.uug.arizona.edu/~ahk
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From: daly@PPD.Kodak.COM (Matthew Daly)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces
Date: 29 Jul 1996 14:42:03 GMT
Organization: Eastman Kodak Company
Lines: 66
Message-ID: <4tiijr$9fj@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM>
References: <31F38893.5D26@earthlink.net> <4t5hfr$mnd@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM> <4t749g$a5g@usenet4.interramp.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: titan_gw.kodak.com
In article <4t749g$a5g@usenet4.interramp.com> mlasky@interramp.com (Mitch Lasky) writes:
>M. Daly writes:
No doubt to the considerable delight of everyone, I found my copy late last
week. :-) :-) :-)
>>I'd like to hear "It's in full release in the following stores, and
>>in the process of being test-marketed in the following stores and
>>locations...."
>
>I'm working on getting together such a list. There is no test marketing.
To recap for everyone who hasn't been following too much, Best Buy and
Media Play are the best bets. I found mine at Media Play, sorted with
the Mac software and sorted in their database as "Infocom Collector's
Edition". It's a dual-platform disc, so Lord alone knows why they
decided to sort it with the Mac stuff, but you'd be wise to search
there if you don't see it with the PC stuff....
Oh, and when you buy it, be sure to make some noise about how much
you appreciate retail outlets who take chances on text adventures.
I don't know if there will be more text adventures out there in the
future (HGTTG2? ), but it doesn't hurt to give warm fuzzies to
our friends.
>I take the non-commercial etiquette of the group very seriously.
>I have tried to provide information (after the release date of the
>product) in response to specific questions and requests.
You have, and it's greatly appreciated. For my part, I've learned a
lot of disquieting news from the retail front, so I'll know better
than to take umbrage when release dates aren't held to the day.
>To put any doubts to rest :), we are a business and we want to make money.
>We did not make the collection for a Usenet newsgroup. We were inspired by
>the continued interest in text adventures and authorship demonstrated in
>the newsgroups. We tried to use the opportunity of a new collection to
>address criticism about prior collections, and to provide some interesting
>additions -- LGOP, historical materials from Infocom, and brand new text
>adventures we first learned of in the newsgroups. We tried to price it
>aggessively so people who already own LTOI or the other collections could
>justify buying it. That was the strategy. I hope it works, too.
So do I. The only thing that I would really have liked to see was an
updated interpreter instead of the old Infocom one. I'm running most
of the games off of ZWin, with the improved save/restore interface,
and was modestly surprised that you didn't license that along with
everything else. While it wouldn't have silenced the critics about
being an all-text game, at least it wouldn't have been labelled as
a DOS game.... :-)
Oh, and a DAT file with the hints, too. Reading the Acrobat file
can tend to make the hints flow a little TOO quickly.
But it's hard to complain given the price. I would joyfully have
paid $60 for such a convenient collection, and will make that decision
manifest by buying two more copies the next time I see three of them
together.
-Matthew
--
Matthew Daly I don't buy everything I read ... I haven't
daly@ppd.kodak.com even read everything I've bought.
My opinions are not necessarily those of my employer, of course.
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From: conrad@copland.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces
Date: 23 Jul 1996 10:45:28 -0400
Organization: University of Delaware
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Message-ID: <4t2oi8$4eg@copland.udel.edu>
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If actual factual information is worth anything, Masterpieces was on the
shelf in a local Borders store (Newark DE) on its release date last
week. It's out there, folks; it's up to the individual store to order
it.
Jon Alan Conrad
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From: stevgrif@moc.govt.nz (Stephen Griffiths)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: New to I.F. Any Recommendations?
Message-ID: <4sreng$fcp@st-james.comp.vuw.ac.nz>
Date: 20 Jul 96 20:14:39 GMT
References: <4s73nl$p9q@guitar.sound.net>
Organization: Ministry of Commerce
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mrote@hclib.hcl.lib.mo.us (Mark) wrote:
>I just recently started playing some I.F. games. Actually I've only
>played and finished two. Hampton Manor and Theatre. I enjoyed both of
>these and was wondering if any one could recommend any other games
>along these lines that aren't too hard. Any help will be appreciated.
>Thanks!
>
>mrote@hclib.hcl.lib.mo.us
>
Baf's Interactive Fiction Guide at:
http://challenge.tiac.net/users/baf/if-guide.html
has mini-reviews of many I.F. games available at the ftp.gmd.de I.F.
archive. You may find it helpful it deciding what games to try next.
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From: daly@PPD.Kodak.COM (Matthew Daly)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces
Message-ID: <4sre7u$loa@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM>
Date: 20 Jul 96 20:06:22 GMT
References: <4soipt$iv2@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> <4sol2l$mke@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM> <4spnh4$kaf@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
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emcmanus@ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu (Edward Joseph Mc Manus) writes:
>
>FYI: A phone call today (7/19) to the direct sales line connected me to
>someone who tried to sell me the old genre collections. Only when given
>the Masterpieces part number (and some time on hold) could she sell me the
>Masterpieces. Price is $19.95. Oh, add THIRTY PERCENT (ie, $6.00) for
>shipping! Sorry, no. I'm glad Activision is an honorable company and
>would not gouge anyone on shipping.
I'm not concerned about gouging ... Software Etc.'s markup isn't much
less than that, nor is Babbages. And $2 of that 6 would pay for
postage if they went USPS, more if they FedEx'd it (and I doubt they
would USPS it). And, as someone who used to be in the multimedia biz,
I know that the manpower in direct sales is a logistic nightmare, and
they'd probably much rather be making these sales through the stores.
I'll be unconcerned about direct sales when someone posts saying that
they received the product through the 800 line. As far as I'm
concerned it's still vaporware, and I don't prepay for vaporware.
I have to wonder why it STILL isn't in their direct sale database....
(Again, I have no particular bane against Activision, I just wish they
would be as public with their delays as they were with the "release"
news. I don't think it's unreasonable to be upset when I see an
official post that says "it's out!" when it isn't and an extra week
of searching was in vain.)
-Matthew
--
Matthew Daly I don't buy everything I read ... I haven't
daly@ppd.kodak.com even read everything I've bought.
My opinions are not necessarily those of my employer, of course.
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From: russotto@ariel.ct.picker.com (Matthew Russotto)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Impossible: Journey
Date: 23 Jul 1996 20:25:25 GMT
Organization: Picker International, Inc.
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <4t3cfl$n3g@news.multiverse.com>
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In article <4t35f4$krh@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu> tdc8@namaste.cc.columbia.edu (Tomas Dylan Clark) writes:
}>Is there a place that I missed where air essence might have been found,
}>or did I use an air essence spell when something else might have worked?
}>Preferably, is there a hack I can use to give my last saved game a boost
}>in air essence? Any interest I might have had in finishing this game
}>honestly has vanished.
Mild spoilers
}>
}>-- Russ
}
} I had the same problem, and boy is it irritating. I haven't finished
} the game yet but I have thought of a couple places you might try
} conserving air reagent:
}
} * In the dwarf caves you reach a broken staircase. You can float
} people across but you have to spend an extra air if you want
} to take all your people; if you leave one behind I don't think
} anything negative happens, and you'll save on air.
Nearby the bottom of the staircase is a source for more air reagent.
} * When three companions split up the wizard has to blast open a
} tree stump. Use fireball, not lightning.
Same thing when need to make a signal to your companions when the wizard
gets stuck on an island.
} * And yeah, save and restore in the pits. If those three don't work,
} the game must be broken... wouldn't surprise me.
You can still win if you use wind.
The game doesn't take that long to run through -- it's probably easier to do
that than to break out txd and find out where the air reagent variable is.
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From: tdc8@namaste.cc.columbia.edu (Tomas Dylan Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Impossible: Journey
Date: 23 Jul 1996 18:25:40 GMT
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 25
Message-ID: <4t35f4$krh@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu>
References: <31F4FD63.76DD@earthlink.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: namaste.cc.columbia.edu
>Is there a place that I missed where air essence might have been found,
>or did I use an air essence spell when something else might have worked?
>Preferably, is there a hack I can use to give my last saved game a boost
>in air essence? Any interest I might have had in finishing this game
>honestly has vanished.
>
>-- Russ
I had the same problem, and boy is it irritating. I haven't finished
the game yet but I have thought of a couple places you might try
conserving air reagent:
* In the dwarf caves you reach a broken staircase. You can float
people across but you have to spend an extra air if you want
to take all your people; if you leave one behind I don't think
anything negative happens, and you'll save on air.
* When three companions split up the wizard has to blast open a
tree stump. Use fireball, not lightning.
* And yeah, save and restore in the pits. If those three don't work,
the game must be broken... wouldn't surprise me.
Tomas Clark
tdc8@columbia.edu
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From: owls@best.com (J. I. Drasner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Playing AGT games on a Mac
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 18:58:44 -0800
Organization: The Trinity Guardian
Lines: 21
Message-ID:
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Pardon my extreme ignorance, but I'm lost in a flood of FAQs. Can anyone
explain whether, and if so how, a Mac user might play an AGT game? (I
think I remember trying to use the system once to write a game, but it
kept crashing my machine on a regular basis.)
Many thanks,
Joey
****************************************************
American Gothic fanatic or just a tourist in Trinity?
Read The Trinity Guardian: http://www.best.com/~owls
****************************************************
Guildenstern: He's -- melancholy.
Player: Melancholy?
Rosencrantz: Mad.
Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you can't help that, we're all mad here.
(From "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern in Wonderland")
****************************************************
Johanna "Joey" Drasner: owls@best.com (San Francisco)
****************************************************
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From: rgc2@york.ac.uk (Richard G Clegg)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Lost Treasures
Date: 29 Jul 1996 15:55:26 GMT
Organization: The University of York, UK
Lines: 54
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(Spoilers for Infidel and minor spoilers for Deadline)
.
.
.
Well, I just got back from a few weeks holiday - during which time
I played a few more of the Lost Treasures. I thought Hollywood Hijinx
was absolutely excellent - especially as it's not one of the games that's
often played. The atomic Chiuaua (damn, I can never spell that word -
small yappy dog) sequence was superb and the whole game's atmosphere with
its mix of childhood nostalgia and B-film ambience was marvellous.
I also played and (I think) finished Infidel which was OK - but so short -
the entire game only took a few hours - and I think there were only really
five or six problems. What was the supposed motivation for the architects
writing the way to avoid all the traps on the walls? Very odd. Rather
akin to someone planting a minefield with big signs saying "Careful, don't
step here" attached to each mine. I also found the ending a bit... well...
cruel - I mean the character wasn't supposed to be very nice but (assuming
I did finish the game) I think that some way to actually survive would
have been good. Was I missing something important or was the "win" in this
game fatal? Oh well.... (I also had a few problems with the "beam" for
some reason I could take the beam from above deck rather than lifting it
from below decks - this was a major sticking point since - as I thought I
had the beam I didn't realise that getting the beam was a problem - and
also the beam kept vanishing and reappearing on the ship. Not impressive.
I don't know whether the problem was due to the interpreter (jzip) or
the game - since I assume that such a major flaw would be found in testing
usually.
I also nearly finished Deadline (I would've finished it properly if I'd've
realised you could arrest X and Y) which would've been a good game if it
wasn't for the fact that IMHO the detective could only win with the benefit
of hindsight (e.g. If I go to location x at time y I will see z) which is
not exactly in the spirit of the detective novel (where the detective
generally "wins" by intelligence rather than recalling what happened
in a previous version of this reality). I can't see a way round this
in IF though. Finally I got woefully stuck on Zork II with
that bl**dy diamond maze like, I imagine, just about every non-US
player.
--
Richard G. Clegg There ain't no getting round getting round
Dept. of Mathematics (Network Control group) Uni. of York.
email: richard@manor.york.ac.uk Eschew Obfustication
www: http://manor.york.ac.uk/top.html
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From: ats@hubert.wustl.edu (Alan Shutko)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Bureaucracy help
Date: 29 Jul 1996 10:59:19 -0500
Organization: Washington University
Lines: 11
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In-reply-to: Richard Bobo's message of Sat, 27 Jul 1996 19:02:00 -0700
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.1
>>>>> "RB" == Richard Bobo writes:
RB> The damned copy protection literature which always endeared me so
RB> to Infocom. Been all over the Acrobat files and there is no
RB> "Popular Paranoia Magazine" to be found.
I believe that magazine is in the maps & documents pdf. The docs
sometimes got sorted around a little, so it's good to check the
maps.pdf for each game though it usually only has spoilers.
But it is in those files somewhere. Nice, pretty color scan.
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From: jcompton@flood.xnet.com (Jason Compton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Comment on how to make money on IF
Date: 30 Jul 1996 00:06:42 GMT
Organization: XNet - A Full Service Internet Provider - (708) 983-6064
Lines: 15
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Jason Compton (jcompton@flood.xnet.com) wrote:
: I started looking into this last fall. A lot of authors were amenable to
: the idea and there were a couple of CD-ROM publishers that were willing to
: handle it. You wouldn't be looking at a whole lot of money, though.
And incidentally, if anyone is serious about the project, I'd be happy to
refer you to the publishers.
--
Jason Compton jcompton@xnet.com
Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (847) 741-0689 FAX
Dirty old mountain all covered in smoke. Better start doing it right.
AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha AR Mailing list - Mail me
WWW - http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR, www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html
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From: "Andrew C. Plotkin"
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Rating systems
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 21:41:46 -0400
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
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<4tj5gm$2bb@service3.uky.edu>
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durall@ewl.uky.edu (Bryan Durall) writes:
> Andrew C. Plotkin(erkyrath+@CMU.EDU) wrote:
> (deletia)
> >
> > Here's my notes on this subject:
> >
> > Merciful: cannot get stuck
> > Polite: can get stuck or die, but it's
> > immediately obvious that you're stuck or dead
> > Tough: can get stuck, but it's
> > immediately obvious that you're about to do something irrevocable
> > Nasty: can get stuck, but when you do something irrevocable, it's
> > clear
> > Cruel: can get stuck by doing something which isn't obviously
> > irrevocable (even after the act)
> >
>
> Is this rating completely fair? By this logic, _Enchanter_ is cruel.
That's certainly how I would rate it.
Remember, *this system does not measure difficulty.* It measures a
different, and hopefully more objective, quality -- how much saving
and undo-ing is necessary to finish a game.
(Not totally objective, because we can disagree about what is
"obviously" irrevocable. Some people may think it sensible to save
before walking into the big black temple full of evil chanting; others
may be shocked when they get killed inside.)
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
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From: whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: plundered harts [sic]/ Hitchhiker's
Date: 24 Jul 1996 19:51:03 GMT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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In article <31F65C8A.69FD@earthlink.net>,
Russell L. Bryan wrote:
>
>Odd. Plundered Hearts came with my copy. Hitchhiker's, however, does not.
Plundered Hearts is definitely in the collection.
>I wonder what the licensing problem with Douglas Adams was. I've considered
>a couple of possibilities. He may have sold them one-time anthology rights,
>which would not be unusual for an author. LTOI would have taken care of
>that, but it appeared again in the sci-fi collection (what odd choices they
>made putting those collections together). The other possibility is that
>Activision is planning on putting together a flashy, graphic version of
>_Restaurant_, or Douglas Adams may have sold such rights to another company.
I'd wager that Infocom had rights for X years, or something like that, and
the license simply expired. As to why they didn't renew it, it could have
been lack of time, Adams wanting too much $$ for a low budget project, all
sorts of stuff.
As for a flashy graphics version, I really doubt it. When Adams came to
Berkeley for a booksigning, I asked him about it, and he said he'd like to
do the sequel if it could be done in text, but that text adventures aren't
commercially viable anymore. He apparently didn't like graphical games
much, oddly enough, being a writer and not an artist. :) I imagine that
he just enjoyed the amount of control he got to have over a text game, but
that's just me reading things into his comments.
--
"This chamber is gaudily decorated and painful to the eye.
Bright reds and greens clash with blues and yellows in an idiot's
conception of splendor."
-An excerpt from "Avalon", a game under construction.
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From: Werner Punz - Dipl
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 22:41:52 +0200
Organization: Johannes Kepler University Linz
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References: <4soipt$iv2@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> <4sol2l$mke@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM> <4spnh4$kaf@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <4sq1f8$d0a@usenet11.interramp.com>
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>
> Just to set the record straight, we want to achieve full
> distribution of the Masterpieces collection. The best
> distribution for Masterpieces is retail distribution. I have
> encouraged people to order this product from retailers that
> accept such orders, in an effort to get retailers to carry more
> inventory for others.
Well there is one thing which went wrong with the collection. There
was almost no hype (nothing on the www page right now, no magazine announcement, \
etc.) Legend does it right. The first time I read about the Lost Adventures was
two months aqo. And the Web Page is more or less up to date. I also saw an announcement
form for the LA collection in my Shannara box. (In the ZN box was nothing which was related
to the Infocom collection. The first time I heard about it was from Laird Malamed
the time he asked for input on the next Zork!!!!!)
No wonder its pretty hard to get it from retailers because almost nobody knows that this
collection exists (except the people who work in the stores and the people
who frequently read this newsgroup.)
I think its great that Activision did this CD but I think they made a big marketing mistake.
Anyway only the marketing dep. of Activision is to blame for the non existent marketing
not the people who did this compilation.
Werner
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From: werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at (Werner Punz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,bwj@concentric.net
Subject: Re: System Shock hint needed
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 12:59:18 GMT
Organization: Johannes Kepler University Linz
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"Brett W. Johnson" wrote:
>I am having trouble getting into the security level in System Shock
>after blowing up the 4 antennas. Any help would be appreciated.
>Also, how do the various weapons rank for damage?
>
Sorry can't help you exactly there since I am at level 4 so far. But
there is a walkthrough in the Games Domain E-Zine (Look in a search
engine for Games Domain).
>Apologies if this is the wrong newsgroup.
This is reallly the wrong group. This group is dedicated to
interactive fiction games (mostly text adventure games.) And System
Shock is more an RPG or an action game. You can deside which type,
although it's one of the few 1'st person perspective games I like
(maybe daggerfall will be the next one I'll buy).
Anyway hope this helps
PS:
How about a Doom on text basis:
You are standing in the middle of a huge room. Monsters surround you.
You suddenly have the feeling that they are not here to party.
> Kill monsters with chainsaw
With a sadistic grin on your face you start your chainsaw and begin to
slice into every direction. Your body is showered in a stream of
blood. The death cries of the monsters shake your entire body.
(Anybody from ID reading this?)
Werner
werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at
http://witiko.ifs.uni-linz.ac.at/~werpu
----------------------------------------------
Lets face the truth.Again you're stuck in the
ususal information highway rush hour traffic
jam.
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From: SusanD@ix.netcom.com (Susan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 23:18:25 -0700
Organization: * Stargate *
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>: This week's charts are out! So Far, by Andrew Plotkin, has hit
>: #4 on the games chart, and Jigsaw just hit #14! This is great!
>Shelby's back on, too. Now let's try to get Lost New York, PTF,
>Christminster, and others back up there!
If we place a maximum 5 points on each game we can only vote for
four of them. Which four should we concentrate on maintaining? :)
* Susan *
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From: Brad O`Donnell
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Rating systems
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 11:21:59 -0300
Organization: Society for the Clothing of Large Animals
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<4tj5gm$2bb@service3.uky.edu> <0lzKVOS00WB4Eds4VE@andrew.cmu.edu>
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Andrew C. Plotkin wrote:
> (Not totally objective, because we can disagree about what is
> "obviously" irrevocable. Some people may think it sensible to save
> before walking into the big black temple full of evil chanting; others
> may be shocked when they get killed inside.)
Evil chanting would entice me to enter a location in a game, it makes
the location sound more interesting.
Brad O'Donnell
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From: Dean Thomas Sebastian Carrano
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: ludicrous question
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 16:58:17 -0400
Organization: Interpage | E-Mail to ANY Pager or Fax | www.interpage.net
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cc: Dean Carrano
More of a Win95 question than an I-F question, but hopefully someone can
help. Very simply, I just got Masterpieces, and find that after I die in
one of the games, I can't see the description! It's there for a
microsecond before the screen clears and a message telling me to press
CTRL-C to close the window comes up. Any solutions, other than playing
in DOS? I'm sure I'm an idiot. Please reply by e-mail to the reply-to
address. Thanks.
Dean Carrano dcarrano@interpage.net / www.interpage.net / (800) 624-6964
Interpage(TM) E-Mail to YOUR existing Pager, as well as Local/Nationwide Svc.
News, Sports, Stock and Weather Paging * LinkAlert WWW & Link Monitoring *
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From: jedubins@unix.amherst.edu (Just a fellow traveller...)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: plundered harts
Date: 24 Jul 1996 21:49:56 GMT
Organization: limbo.org
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Kevin Lo (klo@nexusprime.org) wrote:
: In article , jeffbis@azstarnet.com
: says...
: > Does this game not come with Masterpieces? It appears that this one and
: > Hitch Hiker are missing. I already have Hitch Hiker though...
: No, neither of them are included in the Masterpieces Collection.
Actually, that's not correct. Plundered Hearts does come with the
"Masterpieces" collection. I saw it on my CD yesterday.
Jim
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From: Stephen Griffiths
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Playing IF Archive games FAQ [long, 16KB]
Date: 25 Jul 1996 00:46:57 GMT
Organization: Ministry of Commerce
Lines: 477
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(This document is available from the IF archive at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/games/playgame.FAQ
A few people have suggested I post it here occasionally as a service to
new readers. So here it is.
Please feel free to make comments on whether it should continue to be
posted periodically and, of course, on the content of the FAQ.)
Playing the Interactive Fiction Archive Games
---------------------------------------------
Version 1.1
July 19th, 1996
This document is an attempt to explain how a PC user can play the
interactive fiction games stored at the ftp.gmd.de interactive
fiction archive.
If you wish to make any comments or corrections you can email the
author at stevgrif@moc.govt.nz
Contents
--------
1. The Interactive Fiction Archive
2.1 Where are the games? Part 1
2.2 Where are the games? Part 2
3. How to download a file
4. Zipped Files
5. Game Files and Runtime Systems
6. The Common Types of Game Files
6.1 Hugo
6.2 Tads
6.3 Inform
6.4 AGT
7. Emulators
Appendices
a1. Converters
a2. Compiling Source Code
a2.1 Tads and Hugo
a2.2 Inform
a2.3 AGT
a2.4 Alan
a2.5 Which is Best?
a3. Other I.f. Locations
1. The Interactive Fiction Archive
-------------------------------
The interactive fiction archive is a collection of computer software
and documentation maintained by the kind and generous Volker Blasius
at the ftp site
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive
Please note that ...
- Volker Blasius has not had any input into this document so all the
errors in it are my own! I mention his name as an acknowledgement
of the service he provides to players and authors of interactive
fiction.
- this document is aimed at users of MS-DOS personal computers.
However the i.f. archive caters for users of all computer systems.
One of the joys of interactive fiction is that the games can be
played on a wide variety of computer equipment.
- you can access the i.f. archive using an ftp program or a World
Wide Web browser such as Netscape. This document uses Netscape as
an example.
2.1 Where are the games? Part 1
---------------------------
The i.f. archive stores a huge amount of interactive fiction
information and software. So the files are stored in separate
subdirectories to make it easier to find what you are looking for.
The i.f. games are stored in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/
Within the games directory are subdirectories for the different
categories of games available.
As we are interested in PC games the first directory to look in is
the one called PC!
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/pc/
Here you will find games that are ready to run on your PC. All the
file in this directory are compressed in some way except for the
Index file. See the section on zipped files below to see what to do
with these compressed files. Look in the Index file (by clicking on
it if you're using Netscape) to see short descriptions of all the
available files.
2.2 Where are the games? Part 2
---------------------------
The games in the PC directory are not the only games at the i.f.
archive which can be played on a PC. In fact many of the newer,
bigger and better games are actually stored elsewhere. If you don't
know how to download and uncompress files, read the following two
sections otherwise skip ahead to find about game files, runtime
systems and why you should look for games in directories like ....
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/hugo/
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/
3. How to download a file
----------------------
Netscape usually displays the contents of a file on screen. For
example if you click on the name of the Index file the text it
contains is displayed on screen.
However some types of files, such as programs, are not designed to
be displayed but downloaded to your PC. Netscape automatically
recognises some file types by the file name's extension (such as
zip). Instead of displaying the file contents when you click on its
name, Netscape pops up a SaveAs dialog box asking you where you want
to download the file to.
If Netscape doesn't automatically pop up the SaveAs dialog box when
you click on the name of a file you want to download, you should
right-click the file name. A little sub-menu then pops up. Select
the 'Save this Link as' option to download the file to your PC.
4. Zipped Files
------------
Many of the available files are stored in a compressed format to
save disk space at the i.f. archive and download time when you
transfer them to your PC. Usually the files have been compressed by
a program called Pkzip so the file names end in .zip. You can
download any of these files to your PC but you will then need to
uncompress them using the PkZip program or something else that reads
pkzipped files (such as WinZip.)
You can get the Pkzip program from the i.f. archive. It is stored
in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/download-tools/pc/pkz204g.exe
Once you've downloaded this file, run it on your PC to uncompress
all the component programs that constitute the Pkzip system. One of
the component programs is pkunzip.exe which you can use to
uncompress pkzipped files.
(Some of the files at the i.f. archive have been compressed by
programs other than Pkzip - the file names will end in things like
arc, .tar.Z or .gz. If you are interested, you can find programs
to uncompress these and other formats in the
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/download-tools/pc/ directory
Look in the Index file in this directory to see what the various
programs in the directory can do.)
5. Game Files and Runtime Systems
------------------------------
These days most i.f. games are created using an i.f. authoring
system. An i.f. authoring system is a program that does most of the
'computer programming' work and allows the person writing the i.f.
game to concentrate on the content of his game. These systems read
text files describing the content of the game and 'compile' this
description into a 'game file.'
To play the game you need the compiled game file and a copy of the
appropriate 'runtime interpreter' for the i.f. authoring system that
created the game file.
This game file system works very well because ...
- the i.f. author can distribute just one version of his game which
can be played on any type of computer system (eg: MSDOS PC, Apple
McIntosh, various versions of Unix) for which a runtime interpreter
is available.
- the i.f. player needs only one copy of the runtime interpreter
program for an i.f. authoring system to play all the games written
using that system. This saves space on the player's disk drive and
makes downloading new games quicker as only the game file is
required and not another copy of the software required to play the
game.
The disadvantage for the i.f. player is that it can be difficult to
locate the runtime interpreter for a game. The following section
describes what interpreter to use for the most common i.f. authoring
systems and where the interpreter can be found at the i.f. archive.
6. The Common Types of Game Files
------------------------------
Currently, the most popular i.f. authoring systems are Inform and
TADS. AGT was the dominant system before TADS and Inform became
popular. First though we will look at a relatively new system
called Hugo because it makes a simpler first example.
6.1 Hugo
----
The names of Hugo game files end in .hex. There are only a few Hugo
games available. They are stored at the i.f. archive in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/hugo/
You will see that some of the entries end in .zip. So when you
download these files to your PC you will need to unzip them to
extract the .hex game file.
To play these games on an MSDOS PC you need the Hugo runtime
interpreter for the PC which is stored in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/hugo/executables/hugo21pc.zip
You need to unzip this file on your pc. The zip contains the Hugo
compiler as well as the interpreter. To play Hugo games you just
need the interpreter which is called HE.EXE.
Generally speaking this is the way games are stored at the i.f.
archive. You get the games written in the xyz i.f. authoring system
from the xyz directory under /games and the xyz runtime interpreter
from the xyz directory under /programming.
6.2 TADS
----
The names of Tads game files end in .gam. The Tads games are stored
in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/tads/
There is a lot of entries in this directory. Some of these games
are compressed using programs other than Pkzip. Some like
Legend386.zip are actually PC executable - meaning they come with a
copy of the Tads runtime interpreter so the zip files are large.
Anyway, read through the Index file in this directory to see what's
what.
To play Tads .gam files on an MSDOS PC you need the Tads runtime
interpreter for the PC which is stored in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/tads/pc-go32.tads2exe.zip
This zipped file contains the Tads compiler as well. To play Tads
game files you just need the TADSR.EXE file contained in this zipped
file.
If your PC is an old model which doesn't have a 386-class or better
microprocessor, you'll need to use this version of the Tads system:
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/tads/pc.tads2exe.zip
6.3 Inform
------
The names of Inform game files end in .z-something - usually .z3,
z5 or .z8. The number represents the format version the game file
is written in. For the PC user the format version doesn't matter as
the latest version of the runtime interpreter can read all these
different versions.
The Inform i.f. authoring system is an interesting case because its
game files are in the same format as the famous Infocom i.f. games.
Infocom produced i.f. games in the 1980s. Infocom game files were
stored in what Infocom called z-file format.
Confusingly, Inform game files are stored in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/infocom/
The directory name refers to Infocom because the game files are in
Infocom's 'z-file' format. You won't find any games by the Infocom
company here as they are still under copyright. The Infocom
copyrights are now owned by a company called Activision. Activision
have a WWW site which you may like to look at:
http://www.activision.com/
Interpreters for the z-file format are often called zip
interpreters. Which was an unfortunate choice of name as the word
zip is now associated with compressed files.
There are several different interpreters for the z-file format. Two
of the most popular are JZip and Frotz.
The PC version of the JZip program can read all the main variations
of the z-file format. You can find it at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/zip/jzpc201g.zip
Frotz can also read the main variations of the z-file format and
also supports the graphics and sound features of some z-file format
games. You can find the PC version at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/frotz/frotz201_std02.zip
6.4 AGT
---
AGT (short for Adventure Game Toolkit) games are split into a number
of game files with names ending in . d$$, .da1, .da2 etc. You need
all the files to play the game. There isn't a directory containing
AGT game files at the i.f. archive anyway. Many of the games in the
/games/pc directory are actually AGT games. Remember the compressed
files in the /games/pc include all the files necessary to play the
games they contain so you don't really need any AGT software.
If you are interested in obtaining the AGT i.f. authoring system see
the Compiling Source Code section below.
7. Emulators
---------
Some old games written for old computer systems can be played on PCs
by using a program that emulates the old computer system.
For example, there are a lot of Apple II games in subdirectories
under
ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/games/appleII/
These files are stored as images of Apple II floppy disks. The file
names end in .dsk. To play these games you need an Apple II
emulator program for your PC such as:
ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/emulators/appleII/ApplePC_242.zip
There are also disk images and emulators for other old systems such
as the Commodore C64 at the i.f. archive.
A World Wide Web site with more information on emulators is
http://www.freeflight.com/fms/comp/
Appendices
----------
a1. Converters
----------
Some games written for old computer systems can be converted into
files that can be read on a PC. For example
ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/infocom/tools/ap2inf14.zip
converts Apple II disk images of Infocom games into z-file format
files which can then be played with a PC z-file interpreter like
Jzip.
a2. Compiling Source Code
---------------------
If you wish to write your own games you will need an i.f. authoring
system's compiler and the documentation explaining how to write the
text files (called 'source code') that describe the content of a
game. You may also want to compile a game from the source code
available under the various /programming directories in the i.f.
archive.
If your interest is in playing games though, compiling source code
is unnecessary as most of the available source code is for
programming examples which make boring games or for games that are
available as game files elsewhere at the i.f. archive.
a2.1 Tads and Hugo
-------------
When you downloaded the Tads and Hugo runtime interpreters you also
downloaded the compilers for those systems. Though for Tads you'll
need to download the documentation separately:
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/tads/pc.tads2doc.zip
This is not the full Tads documentation. Tads is shareware
software. The full documentation is available only to registered
users of Tads.
a2.2 Inform
------
The Inform compiler is in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/inform/executables/i55pc.zip
The Inform manual is available in various formats in this directory:
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/inform/manuals/
a2.3 AGT
---
The AGT i.f. authoring system is in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/agt/agt17.zip
There are many versions of AGT including a Windows version
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/agt/wagt15.zip
and a modernised version
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/agt/agt183.zip
Read the Index file in the programming/agt directory for details.
a2.4 Alan
----
Alan is a powerful but relatively easy-to-use i.f. authoring system.
Details of this system are in
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/alan/
a2.5 Which is Best?
--------------
There are many other i.f. authoring systems available too. None,
perhaps, is 'best'. It depends on your level of programming skill
and what sort of interactive fiction you want to create. If you feel
like writing your own games you may like to look at Bob Newell's
"Which Authoring System is Best FAQ"
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/programming/general-discussion/whichsys.
zip
a3. Other I.f. Locations
--------------------
Copies of the i.f. archive are stored at other ftp sites. Have a
look at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/README
to see if there is a 'mirror site' closer to you than ftp.gmd.de.
To learn more about interactive fiction, look at the Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) files for the rec.games.int-fiction and
rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroups. The 'arts' group discusses the
writing of interactive fiction so its FAQ may be of less interest to
an i.f. player than the 'games' group's FAQ.
The FAQ files can be found at
ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/rec.games.int-fiction/FAQ
ftp://ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/rec.arts.int-fiction/FAQ
There are other interactive fiction locations on the World Wide Web.
Try
http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/~svanegmo/if-index.html
http://challenge.tiac.net/users/baf/if-guide.html
for starters.
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From: rgc2@york.ac.uk (Richard G Clegg)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Been playing IF too long...
Date: 30 Jul 1996 14:08:56 GMT
Organization: The University of York, UK
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <4tl51o$s2o@netty.york.ac.uk>
References: <83511179@lostics.thenet.co.uk> <4ta52u$fjn@fbi-news.Informatik.Uni-Dortmund.DE>
Reply-To: richard@manor.york.ac.uk
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Stefan Jokisch (jokisch@euklid.informatik.uni-dortmund.de) wrote:
: "Ross Nicoll" writes:
: >Help! I keep trying to move through directories by typing directions,
: >and get directory listings with either "look" or "inventory"! Can
: >anyone help!
This happens to me all the time.
: And I thought I was the only one! Whenever I type "look" at
: the DOS or Unix prompt I feel slightly embarassed; luckily,
: none of my fellow students seems to have noticed so far. The
: best solution is to define "look" as an alias for "ls", "out"
: as an alias for "cd ..", "quit" as an alias for "exit" and so
: forth...
Yup - in unix you can use alias. In DOS I'm not sure there's
an alias command but you can put a file called LOOK.BAT in the
DOS directory containing
DIR %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
(In case you get so used to using look that you type LOOK /W to get
a wide screen version).
--
Richard G. Clegg There ain't no getting round getting round
Dept. of Mathematics (Network Control group) Uni. of York.
email: richard@manor.york.ac.uk Eschew Obfustication
www: http://manor.york.ac.uk/top.html
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From: durall@ewl.uky.edu (Bryan Durall)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: The Witness: Phone Number Please
Date: 30 Jul 1996 14:02:49 GMT
Organization: Engineering Workstation Lab
Lines: 25
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David Silberman (davesilb@hooked.net) wrote:
> Well here's an obscure little piece of Infocom information that I'm
> hoping someone has. I recently purchased Lost Treasures vol I and
> I have a question about the docs for the Witness. In the manual
> there's a photocopy of the matchbook from the original version.
> It looks like the restaurant's phone number might be written on the
> bottom of the matchbook, but the copy quality is too poor for
> me to make it out. I'm not referring to the handwritten number
> for Chandler (Raymond?) or the large Adeline number but the tiny
> writing below the Brass Lantern label. With the availability of
> the Masterpieces I assume that a better scan is included in the PDF
> file.
>
> I know that this is a minor detail in the scope of the game but I
> like to milk my IF for all it's worth.
>
> Dave
The scan isn't much better in Masterpieces. I believe you can get away
with CALL BRASS LANTERN, if you're so inclined.
--
Bryan Durall | durall@ewl.uky.edu, durall@cslab.uky.edu, durall@mik.uky.edu
"Na, na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na naaaa, hey Jude..."
- The Beatles, 1968
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From: Julian Arnold
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 22:17:09 +0100 (BST)
Organization: Har har, me hearties!
Lines: 21
Message-ID:
References: <4tguip$72@europa.frii.com> <0lz4Wk200WB58Bc64M@andrew.cmu.edu>
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X-Mailer: ANT RISCOS Marcel [ver 0.99o]
In article <0lz4Wk200WB58Bc64M@andrew.cmu.edu>, Andrew C. Plotkin
wrote:
>
> jholder@frii.com (John Holder) writes:
> > This week's charts are out! So Far, by Andrew Plotkin, has hit
> > #4 on the games chart, and Jigsaw just hit #14! This is great!
>
> This is disturbing, is what it is.
>
> Nonetheless, I have not yet been contacted by hordes of reporters
> looking for the next craze in computer gaming. Daniel Zwerdling,
> where art thou? ("Wherefore"... never mind.)
That's funny, because I was last week (well, one anyway). I think I
finally managed to drive him off though, as I haven't heard from him for
two or three days.
Anyway, well done Andrew. "So Far" deserves all it's success.
Jools
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From: jcompton@flood.xnet.com (Jason Compton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: 30 Jul 1996 19:41:06 GMT
Organization: XNet - A Full Service Internet Provider - (708) 983-6064
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References: <4tguip$72@europa.frii.com> <4tjukn$jde@thor.cmp.ilstu.edu> <31fda8a4.117014143@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <31fe1de1.10037074@news.uni-linz.ac.at>
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Not to go totally off-topic, (and I am excited about the IF showings),
but does that voting system strike anyone else as being rather
unrepresentative?
Voters are notified that they should only vote for new games, because
they're more likely to have other people voting for them and will
therefore show up. That ruins the point of voting for your favorite
games, I feel.
--
Jason Compton jcompton@xnet.com
Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (847) 741-0689 FAX
Dirty old mountain all covered in smoke. Better start doing it right.
AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha AR Mailing list - Mail me
WWW - http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR, www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html
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From: cinnamon@shell.one.net (athol-brose)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: plundered harts [sic]
Date: 25 Jul 1996 12:49:05 GMT
Organization: standing on a hill
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Message-ID: <4t7qg1$poj@news.one.net>
References: <31F65C8A.69FD@earthlink.net>
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In article <31F65C8A.69FD@earthlink.net>,
Russell L. Bryan wrote:
>I wonder what the licensing problem with Douglas Adams was. I've considered
>a couple of possibilities. He may have sold them one-time anthology rights,
>which would not be unusual for an author. LTOI would have taken care of
>that, but it appeared again in the sci-fi collection (what odd choices they
>made putting those collections together). The other possibility is that
>Activision is planning on putting together a flashy, graphic version of
>_Restaurant_, or Douglas Adams may have sold such rights to another company.
I believe the electronic game rights for HGTTG were for 10 years -- and just
recently expired.
--
r. n. dominick -- cinnamon@one.net -- http://w3.one.net/~cinnamon/
"Armor; we have this for you, we do..."
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From: cinnamon@shell.one.net (athol-brose)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: plundered harts [sic]
Date: 25 Jul 1996 12:51:00 GMT
Organization: standing on a hill
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <4t7qjk$pp4@news.one.net>
References: <31F65C8A.69FD@earthlink.net> <4t6imv$30o@cnn.Princeton.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: shell.prv1.one.net
In article <4t6imv$30o@cnn.Princeton.EDU>,
Adam J. Thornton wrote:
>HHGTTG was published in 1984. I suspect that the rights were for ten
>years; LTOI was 1991 (?) and the SF collection was probably '94.
Now that I think about it, the SF collection was released in 1995 -- because
I was working in a software store in Fall, 1995 (just before getting my
current job), so... who knows?
--
r. n. dominick -- cinnamon@one.net -- http://w3.one.net/~cinnamon/
"Armor; we have this for you, we do..."
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From: SusanD@ix.netcom.com (Susan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 12:23:38 -0700
Organization: * Stargate *
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NNTP-Posting-Host: slo-ca2-24.ix.netcom.com
X-NETCOM-Date: Tue Jul 30 12:23:31 PM PDT 1996
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>Well how about one of the votes for the Masterpieces Collection. I'm
>sure it would help it's distribution in the stores. (Because almost
>nobody out there seems to know that it exists)
NO! :) They are all to old, and the ones with extensive
graphics in them I won't support. If we throw our votes around to
much it will dilute everything. I suggest sticking to four text
adventures that are on the chart today.
1. So Far
2. Jigsaw
3. The Light: Shelby's Addendum
4. ???
I would like to think that these 3 at least are all pretty good
too? I have played _So Far_ but do not have any other post
Implementor I-Fs done. I have started "Deep Space Drifter" because it
has a couple great mazes in it. I have a love/hate thing with mazes.
I'll tell you what. My strategy each week will be to vote for
the four I-Fs that are highest on the chart. If there aren't four
then I will vote for a graphic adventure I enjoyed playing. Last week
my fourth vote went to "Buried In Time". Of course these are on a
different chart.
* Susan *
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From: whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: WTB: Stationfall
Date: 25 Jul 1996 17:22:28 GMT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 84
Message-ID: <4t8agk$3np@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <31F508A1.7860@activision.com> <4t84ld$8bg@tom.amherst.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: uclink.berkeley.edu
In article <4t84ld$8bg@tom.amherst.edu>,
an unearthly child wrote:
>Michael Ward (mward@activision.com) wrote:
>: Activision is looking to buy original Stationfall packaging. Must be
>: original Infocom packaging and contain all original materials
>: including the spacestation blueprints, forms, and Stellar Patrol
>: patch. Prefer PC disks but will accept any platform provided all
>: original materials are intact.
>
>: Will pay $35 (shipping included).
>
>Cheez! If you *have* original Stationfall packaging, you probably *paid*
>about $35 for it, especially when inflation is taken into account. And
>Activision's offering $35 including *SHIPPING*? Now, if it was just to
>borrow, maybe this would be an offer someone would accept. But I doubt
>anyone who is into IF enough to know where their original Stationfall
>box is will want to part with it for that price.
>
>-kiddo
Give me a break. I suggested that Michael offer $35, as that is almost 2x
the going rate for most Infocom games. It's only a grey box game, and I
often see them for $15-20. Just because it's a company posting doesn't
mean they should have to pay more than you or I for a game. If I had
posted a similar WTB message and offered $35, nobody would have
complained. Having been reading this newsgroup for about 3 years now, I
think I MIGHT just have a clue about the going price for Infocom games,
especially considering that I have bought many of the games in my own
collection here.
Now, Activision just wants to make the new Planetfall as good as they can.
I sent them a shiny new in-shrinkwrap folio version of the original
Planetfall for cost, $20. THAT was a collector's item. But I want the
new Planetfall team to understand the intentions and the 'spirit' of the
old Planetfall, so they can at least go in with their eyes open.
[begin tirade]
It seems silly to me to continue to lavish insult and complaints on a
company that is doing its very best to mend its bridges. For the first
time in quite awhile, we've seen a commercial company pay $$ for text
adventures. They are supporting the I-F Competition. They are doing
their damnedest to get us up-to-date information on the Masterpieces
Collection. Mitch Lasky has other work to do as well, I hope you guys
realize. He's not a net.rep.
I used to despise Activision. There are probably still jokes about them
in my Authorship Guide. But that was when they gave us damn good reasons
to hate them. Poor handling of LTOI, Return to Zork (bleah!), LGOP2
(Aiii!!). I thought Zork: Nemesis was a far cry from RtZ, even if it
didn't stretch across the ages to resurrect the feel of Zork. I would
like to remind everyone that personnel does change at large companies.
The crew we deal with now is different from the folks we dealt with a few
years ago.
[winding down]
This obviously isn't all directed at you, kiddo. I'm just upset at you
for deriding a perfectly reasonable offer that is being made for good
reasons. There's been a lot of bad blood on here lately, and very little
of it has been justified. I would like to see us r.g.i-fers take a
collective count to 10 and just chill out. Mitch Lasky is a very nice
guy. Michael Ward is a polite, funny man. Neither of them deserve to
have to deal with cutting remarks, biting sarcasm, or even nibbling irony.
Remember that you aren't talking to a company, you are directing comments
at people who enjoy text adventures, just like us. Michael's response
upon receiving the Planetfall I sent him was sheer excitement about how
cool it was, and about how it was giving them all sorts of ideas for the
new Planetfall. That does not sound like the Satan-worshipping Activision
employees we've started to imagine around every corner.
[end tirade, begin weary remark]
Bah. Enough tirades. I'm just weary of the whole mess. I just hope that
if I ever get a job at Activision and write the next Zork that you'll all
treat me with a little more common decency than you have these fellows.
[end weary remark]
--
< The Society for the Preservation of Adventure games. Filled with | ~~\ >
< reviews, ratings, and advertisements...all about text adventures. | /~\ | >
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From: sdoherty@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Shawn Doherty)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,uiuc.classifieds,rec.games.computer.puzzle
Subject: FS: PC & Apple games: Infocom +
Date: 25 Jul 1996 13:51:12 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 66
Message-ID: <4t7u4g$i6h@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: s.psych.uiuc.edu
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #6
Xref: nntp.gmd.de rec.games.int-fiction:16075 rec.games.computer.puzzle:2080
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple Games (On 5 1/4" disks)
Infocom
Shogun $10
Mines of Titan $10
New World Computing
Might and Magic II $10
Penguin Software
The Quest $3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM/PC games (On 3 1/2" disks)
New World Computing
Might and Magic III $20 for all three
Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen ($7 each)
Might and Magic IV: Darkside of Xeen
Sierra
Quest for Glory III $10
Gobliiins $7
Goblins Quest 3 $7
SSI
AD&D Collectors Edition Vol. 3 $10
Gateway to the Savage Frontier
Treasures of the Savage Frontier
Pools of Darkness
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM/PC games (On CD-ROM)
Virgin
Hodj'N'Podj $15
Activision/Infocom
Sci-Fi Bundle $10
Hitchhiker's Guide
A Mind Forever Voyaging
Starcross
Stationfall
Suspended
Fantasy Bundle $10
Enchanter
Sorcerer
Spellbreaker
SeaStalker
Wishbringer
Zork Bundle $10
Zork I
Zork II
Zork III
Beyond Zork
Zork Zero
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All games contain the original packaging except for Clouds of Xeen which is
missing the notepad. Prices may be negotiable and do not include shipping and
handling costs. Email sdohe@ux7.cso.uiuc.edu or sdoherty@s.psych.uiuc.edu if
interested.
Shawn Doherty
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From: werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at (Werner Punz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Masterpieces - desperate!!!!!!
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 11:24:29 GMT
Organization: Johannes Kepler University Linz
Lines: 21
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Reply-To: werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at
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Hi I'm desperate:
I'm sitting here in in good old Europe. The weather is lousy and there
is no chance to get the Masterpiece collection except from the States.
Mitch Larsky wrote me yesterday that the direct sales line doesn't
ship to Europe. So I'm asking you for your help. Is there anybody out
there in the States who would be willing to send me one copy of the
Masterpiece collection (I would pay for everything of course). Or does
anybody know a mailorder company which ships to Europe and carries the
collection.
Thanks for your help
Werner Punz
werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at
http://witiko.ifs.uni-linz.ac.at/~werpu
----------------------------------------------
Lets face the truth.Again you're stuck in the
ususal information highway rush hour traffic
jam.
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From: nkg@vcn.bc.ca (Neil K. Guy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,bwj@concentric.net
Subject: Re: System Shock hint needed
Followup-To: rec.games.int-fiction,bwj@concentric.net
Date: 31 Jul 1996 00:27:09 GMT
Organization: Vancouver CommunityNet
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <4tm98t$dd8@milo.vcn.bc.ca>
References: <31FBCCB6.DD6@concentric.net> <31fe0449.3484188@news.uni-linz.ac.at>
NNTP-Posting-Host: opus.vcn.bc.ca
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Werner Punz (werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at) wrote:
: How about a Doom on text basis:
: You are standing in the middle of a huge room. Monsters surround you.
: You suddenly have the feeling that they are not here to party.
Someone's already done it. Look at Foom on ftp.gmd.de. It's the TADS
source for exactly what you describe. Seemed like a pretty elaborate and
pointless one-off joke to me, but there you go.
- Neil K. Guy
--
Neil K. Guy * nkg@vcn.bc.ca * nkg@tela.bc.ca
49N 16' 123W 7' * Vancouver, BC, Canada
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From: SusanD@ix.netcom.com (Susan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 13:28:22 -0700
Organization: * Stargate *
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>Voters are notified that they should only vote for new games, because
>they're more likely to have other people voting for them and will
>therefore show up. That ruins the point of voting for your favorite
>games, I feel.
You don't HAVE to vote that way. I just added Christminster in
my vote this week and it hasn't been on the charts for a year
(approximately). The point is that if I am the only one who votes for
it this week it won't be on next weeks charts. If I vote for it
instead of _So Far_ for instance, then _So Far_ will suffer for it.
It is sort of like the real election next November. You don't
HAVE to vote for Clinton or Dole but you know one of them will win.
If you. If you can get enough people to vote for an old text
adventure so it shows on the charts others who were not aware may take
note and try it.
* Susan *
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From: ev@dolphin.no (Erik Vasaasen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces (73USD in Norway - can you beat that?)
Message-ID: <4t7r01$o9l@elle.eunet.no>
Date: 25 Jul 96 12:57:37 GMT
References: <31F68DFB.446B9B3D@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at>
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In article <31F68DFB.446B9B3D@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at>,
Werner Punz - Dipl wrote:
>Hi I'm trying to get to the Activision sales dep.
>via e-mail to order the Masterpieces because the last two
>collections never reached europe as far as I can remember,
> but I haven't got any answer from their support dep
>yet. To Legend:I ordered th LA collection by sending a fax to their
I would be interested in that too - I saw an ad for Masterpieces here in
Norway, but they charged 469nkr, which is about 73 USD.. (73.37, actually,
I just checked the rate) I would rather buy 2-3 copies from the US and
give 2 of them away than feeding bloodsuckers like that ;)
So, if anyone out there has an email address, or a non 800 fax or voice
number that can be used for ordering directly from Activision please
share..
Erik
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From: rlivings@together.net (Bob Livingston)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces found for $16.95
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 01:01:20 GMT
Organization: Together Networks
Lines: 9
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Tuesday: UPS delivered Masterpieces today - it took a day longer than
I thought it would because it shipped from NECX's Illinois warehouse.
But it really DOES EXIST!!! I haven't played any of these games since
my C=64 days it about 1982-84. And I've NEVER played at least half of
them, so... gotta go!
Bob
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From: nulldogma@aol.com (Nulldogma)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Comment on how to make money on IF
Date: 30 Jul 1996 21:15:39 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
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Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com
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References:
Reply-To: nulldogma@aol.com (Nulldogma)
NNTP-Posting-Host: newsbf02.mail.aol.com
> I think the point of producing an IF CD would be to publicize IF, not to
> make $ (or perhaps cents...). Ie, authors accept the fact they'll make
> no money directly off the CD-- their profits, if any, come from the
> increased number of shareware registrations that they'll get as a result
> of the publisher's advertising of the CD.
Which would be fine by me. I'm still sorry the Walnut Creek thing never
happened.
Meanwhile, I *am* pursuing the other route, which is taking out a group ad
and self-distributing. I called CGW today, but have yet to receive a
callback -- however, after buying the magazine today to check it out (the
sacrifices I make for the cause...), I'm more convinced than ever that CGW
readers are a lousy fit for i-f sales. Plus, CGW has no classifieds
section, meaning likely big bucks for even a small ad.
However, Lucian Smith e-mailed me with another idea: Games magazine. I
bought a copy of this today as well, and they *do* have a classified
section, where we can get a one-inch display ad (which could be okay if
designed well) for $200. That's, say, ten authors at $20 apiece.
I'll keep after the CGW ad rep, but what do the rest of you think of the
Games idea? Are there other authors who'd like to get in on it? Comments,
please.
Neil
P.S. Can someone cross-post this to r.a.i-f, where it belongs anyway,
please? I still can't figure how to make this AOL newsreader do what I
want...
---------------------------------------------------------
Neil deMause neild@echonyc.com
http://www.echonyc.com/~wham/neild.html
---------------------------------------------------------
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From: werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at (Werner Punz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: WTB: Stationfall
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 20:10:05 GMT
Organization: Johannes Kepler University Linz
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <31f7d308.1552457@news.uni-linz.ac.at>
References: <31F508A1.7860@activision.com> <4t84ld$8bg@tom.amherst.edu> <4t8agk$3np@agate.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at
NNTP-Posting-Host: slip11.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent .99e/32.227
whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson) wrote:
>It seems silly to me to continue to lavish insult and complaints on a
>company that is doing its very best to mend its bridges. For the first
>time in quite awhile, we've seen a commercial company pay $$ for text
>adventures. They are supporting the I-F Competition. They are doing
>their damnedest to get us up-to-date information on the Masterpieces
>Collection. Mitch Lasky has other work to do as well, I hope you guys
>realize. He's not a net.rep.
Snip
Not many game companies have people who constantly scan newsgroups
for new ideas and user feedback. I think Activision is doing a great
job and I bought many of their recent games and I liked every one of
them. Activision is the wrong company to bash at.
Werner
werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at
http://witiko.ifs.uni-linz.ac.at/~werpu
----------------------------------------------
Lets face the truth.Again you're stuck in the
ususal information highway rush hour traffic
jam.
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From: sdoherty@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Shawn Doherty)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Masterpieces found-and there's some left!
Date: 25 Jul 1996 13:56:52 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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NNTP-Posting-Host: s.psych.uiuc.edu
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #6
I just received my copy of Masterpieces yesterday from a mail-order
company that's in my area. The name of the company is called
"United CD-ROM" and as of yesterday (7/24) near 3:00 they informed me
they still have a couple hundred copies left. They are charging $19.00
for it but I'm not certain what their shipping charge is since I'm
in town. NOTE: They have it listed in their system as "Infocom
Collectors Edition". Order it by that name. The number to call and
order it is 1-800-UNITED4 (1-800-864-8334).
Good luck and enjoy!
Shawn Doherty
sdoherty@s.psych.uiuc.edu
sdohe@uiuc.edu
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From: werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at (Werner Punz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Masterpieces - desperate!!!!!!
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 20:33:49 GMT
Organization: Johannes Kepler University Linz
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <31f7d84b.2899806@news.uni-linz.ac.at>
References: <31f7580a.1522141@news.uni-linz.ac.at>
Reply-To: werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at
NNTP-Posting-Host: slip7.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent .99e/32.227
werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at (Werner Punz) wrote:
>Masterpiece collection (I would pay for everything of course). Or does
>anybody know a mailorder company which ships to Europe and carries the
>collection.
Snip
For everybody out there. I found an US CD rom retailer on the web
which carries the Masterpiece collection for 21.65$. They also have a
secure order form for credit card orders. And the best thing about
this shop is it delivers worldwide so no more waiting here in
Europe!!!!!!!!
The adress is www.cdromshop.com
The shop carries it at the name Infocom Collectors edition. But it
also seems to have the LTOI collections. (unfortunately I paid 36$
(including shipping (22 $ without shipping) to get it)
Hope this helps all the fellow Europeans who are eager on getting
their hands onto that collection.
Werner Punz
werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at
http://witiko.ifs.uni-linz.ac.at/~werpu
----------------------------------------------
Lets face the truth.Again you're stuck in the
ususal information highway rush hour traffic
jam.
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From: frederik@unixg.ubc.ca (Andrew Frederiksen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: [Masterpieces]: Games Included
Date: 25 Jul 1996 13:53:49 -0700
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
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In article <4t7s4v$l85@bertrand.carleton.ca>,
Bryan Hollebone wrote:
>As far as I can tell, Shogun and The Hitch Hiker's Guide...
>asre the only two not included in the collection. Beyond Zork
>even appears to be included (BZORK.EXE) eventhough I do not
>remember seeing it on the box cover.
Hmm... Is Shogun any good? I have a copy of Lost Treasures I, so I
have THHGTTG already -- is Shogun worth tracking down, or should I
not bother?
Hmph. Time to do some phoning around Vancouver, I suppose -- anyone
know if Masterpieces is available in Canada?
--
-- Andrew Frederiksen, frederik@unixg.ubc.ca aka andyf@geop.ubc.ca
-- http://www.geop.ubc.ca/~andyf
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From: ves@powerup.com.au (Paul Veselovsky)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: BID UPDATE STARCROSS SAUCER, LGOP T SHIRT, PLANTEFALL AND FOOBLITZKY
Date: 29 Jul 1996 23:34:59 GMT
Organization: PowerUp
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These are the current bids on the items I have for sale.
>Starcross $60
>Planetfall $35
>LGOP T-Shirt $40
>Fooblitzy $20
If you are interested I will be accecpting bids up until midnight on the
first of August. (Which rocks around 12 to 16 hours or so earlier for me
then it does for Americans.)
$20 for a complete though tattered boxed Fooblitzky? Someone is gonna get
a bargain!
Cheers,
Paul
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From: Julian Arnold
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Comment on how to make money on IF
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 19:01:42 +0100 (BST)
Organization: Har har, me hearties!
Lines: 31
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In article <4tjami$m1r@flood.xnet.com>, Jason Compton
wrote:
>
> Werner Punz - Dipl (werpu@inflab.uni-linz.ac.at) wrote:
> : I have an idea on how to make money on IF games.
> : Why not a IF compilation with the current IF games which
> : reside on the IF archives, with some background material,
> : solutions hints, compilers, etc.. The authors should get some share of the
> : profits of the CD. The problem is, not many companies out there
> : could do that the only one might be Activision under the Infocom
> : label. How about the Interactive Fiction collection?
> : I know it would be an experiment but a really interesting one.
>
> I started looking into this last fall. A lot of authors were amenable to
> the idea and there were a couple of CD-ROM publishers that were willing to
> handle it. You wouldn't be looking at a whole lot of money, though.
Wasn't this the root of the problems with Walnut Creek? The profit per
CD for an IF CD would be very small. If divided amongst all the
contributors to the CD (once the publisher had skimmed off their
percentage) this profit would be so miniscule as to be not worth the
bother.
I think the point of producing an IF CD would be to publicize IF, not to
make $ (or perhaps cents...). Ie, authors accept the fact they'll make
no money directly off the CD-- their profits, if any, come from the
increased number of shareware registrations that they'll get as a result
of the publisher's advertising of the CD.
Jools
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From: ldaly@cs.bu.edu (Industrial Strength)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Help in Looking for Godot
Date: 29 Jul 1996 17:14:03 GMT
Organization: Seizures and Spittle
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Nulldogma (nulldogma@aol.com) enlightened us with:
> > _Waiting for Godot_
> > An Interactive Infinite Loop
> > LOOK
> You see Jacob Weinstein and a team of copyright lawyers, advancing slowly
> on your position...
Honest, I swear to godot, I never played the game before. I even
had to get the TADS runtime to realize I'd plagiarized.
> Neil
> (whose favorite game of all time is still _Modernism_)
Now that I feel like an ass, I agree.
--Liza
--
gecko@echonyc.com http://fovea.retina.net/~gecko/
"Where are the nude shots???" - web comment
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From: iwdr103@link.private.com (gates)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Lurking Horror in the old LTOI
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 96 05:23:50 GMT
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, US
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I have the original release of Lost Treasures of Infocom for the Mac (on
diskette, no less), and there are (apparently) three versions of "Lurking
Horror." One is called "Lurking Horror," one is "Lurking Horror II," and the
other is "The Lurking Horror."
All begin the same way, so I assume they're just duplicates, but I haven't
gone very far into any of them due to the insane phobia that I will be
happily saving along and get to some glitch in the version I'm playing and
have to start over on another one.
Does anyone know anything about these three versions, if there are any
variants? Or what?
Patrick M.
mrbikferd@nwu.edu
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From: lobo@best.com (Etienne Pelaprat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: BETA TESTING
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 17:46:32 -0800
Organization: Pagemasters Unlimited
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All the beta testers who want to test Spy-X must have a Mac. Sorry if
that causes any inconviniences for anybody.
Etienne
--
Etienne Pelaprat
http://www.best.com/~lobo/index.html
lobo@best.com
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From: SwiftH
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Need Beyond Zork Help
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 12:51:41 -0400
Organization: Booz-Allen & Hamilton
Lines: 27
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> : Need a hint with Beyond Zork... when you get to the kitchen with the
> : Cook, who says he'll give you the onion if you bring back the bottle,
> : you go downstairs to get it. When you try to get back up, he slams the
> : door shut. How do I get out?
>
> Use one of them thar scrolls that teleports you around. If you haven't found
> such a scroll yet, (and read it once above ground) then I hope you saved yer
> game...
>
> I'm almost positive there's another, more elegant way, but I've forgotten.
>
> -kiddo...............................................................................
You have that pendant with the red swirls? Carefully read the description when
you examine the bottle and the pendant, and THINK!
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From: durall@ewl.uky.edu (Bryan Durall)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Chart News: So Far rockets to #8! Jigsaw returns.
Date: 29 Jul 1996 20:04:38 GMT
Organization: Engineering Workstation Lab
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Andrew C. Plotkin(erkyrath+@CMU.EDU) wrote:
(deletia)
>
> Here's my notes on this subject:
>
> Merciful: cannot get stuck
> Polite: can get stuck or die, but it's
> immediately obvious that you're stuck or dead
> Tough: can get stuck, but it's
> immediately obvious that you're about to do something irrevocable
> Nasty: can get stuck, but when you do something irrevocable, it's
> clear
> Cruel: can get stuck by doing something which isn't obviously
> irrevocable (even after the act)
>
Is this rating completely fair? By this logic, _Enchanter_ is cruel.
(Minor spoilers for Enchanter follow.)
How many people frotzed themselves, and got incredibly stuck because
they couldn't find ozmoo? Or am I the only moron out here? :)
--
Bryan Durall | durall@ewl.uky.edu, durall@cslab.uky.edu, durall@mik.uky.edu
"Na, na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na naaaa, hey Jude..."
- The Beatles, 1968
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From: jimlowther@aol.com (JimLowther)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Wonderland Disks
Date: 29 Jul 1996 20:55:06 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
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I was pleasantly surprised to find a lone copy of Virgin Matertronic's
Wonderland in the discount bin at Office Depot the other day.
Unfortunately, the third disk (3.5) was actually a duplicate of the
second, and the game would not install.
I wonder if anyone would be kind enough to share with me the contents of
the third disk do that I can finally play this game?
Thanks for your help.
Jim Lowther
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From: "Andrew C. Plotkin"
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: So Far: #4! Jigsaw: 14!
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 15:18:48 -0400
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
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nkg@vcn.bc.ca (Neil K. Guy) writes:
> Andrew C. Plotkin (erkyrath+@CMU.EDU) wrote:
>
> : PS: Spotted Masterpieces in a Borders in DC. Very pleased to discover
> : that they *did* correctly create MaxZip stand-alones for the
> : competition games. I wonder if they noticed that you can unbundle the
> : interpreter and run it on all their game files? I wonder how many
> : non-RGIF customers will notice this? :-)
>
> The version of MaxZip I have makes a snide remark about Activision in
> the about box. Is that still there? :)
Er, yes. I didn't remember about it until several weeks too late. Heh.
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
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From: tonyhut@actrix.gen.nz
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Masterpieces
Date: 30 Jul 1996 08:40:49 GMT
Organization: Actrix Networks Limited
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Oh dear, sorry for my previous post. Acrobat does not jump into the
HINTS or MAPS sub-directories. It has to be pushed. How disappointing,
having those flashing buttons, and yet not Activisioning!
BTW, Activision in Sydney may have a Masterpieces left - they are very
good to deal with:
Phone: +612 869 0955 Fax: +612 869 0977
P.O. Box 873, Epping, NSW 2121
They sold mine for $30 (Australian) + $5 P&P.
Tony Hutchins
No matter where you go...there you are!
`[1;30;43mNet-Tamer V 1.05.1 - Registered
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From: "James A. Montanus"
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: [Masterpieces]: Games Included
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 08:45:58 -0400
Organization: Legend Entertainment Company
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> Who is they? Infocom, Activision, Legend, or Steve Meretzky's
> own company (I think he had one once)? Maybe section VII
> "Implementors" of the Infocom facts is in error then as it shows its
> release just like LGOP2 above it, with Infocom in "" and ().
Steve still is part of Boffo Games, and they are working on Space Bar, an
adventure game due out this Christmas. (Of course, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
is another fine adventure game out this Christmas featuring a intergalactic
bar. Hmmm. Great minds think alike?)
Jim Montanus
Legend Entertainment
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From: Webster/Erichsen
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Help on GUMSHOE ***SPOILERS***
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:54:22 -0700
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Hi,
I've been playing the game GUMSHOE (available from GMD), and I'm stuck.
Once you've seen John and Nicole together at Giuseppe's, and you have
Sandra on the phone, how do you tell her you saw them together?
Thanks,
Luke Erichsen